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.