The Daylight Gate

Jeanette Winterson
Star Rating
★★★★
Reviewer's Rating
Oct 20, 2014

 

The Daylight Gate was a whim I picked up that fit neatly into my October/Halloween/Witch reading theme, and that delighted me more than I expected.  I read Winterson years ago for a post-structuralist college class and only remembered her fondly to feel smarter about myself.  This time, I picked her up for the shiny cover and, yes, the promise of witches. 

The Daylight Gate is a semi-historical novel about one of the earliest seventeenth century English witch-hunts.  It's suitably foreboding, and you watch doom circle and dive at every one of the characters.  There’s magic and politics and even some Shakespeare.  It’s a deceptively simple little story: Winterson uses clean, short sentences to carry her readers deep, deep into crazy.  Like the bitten-off tongue in the saddle bag.  Or that little girl whose toy is a baby in a bottle. 

I enjoyed this book, and recommend it highly to witches, Halloweenies, and literary readers interested in a bit of extra seasonal spookiness.

Reviewed by Julie T.
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