"Belong[s] firmly within the contemporary examination of the United States' ongoing and multifaceted satanic panic."
--The Washington Post

"Thought-provoking and timely... Searing"
--Jessie Childs, The Times

"Inventive and compelling... A work of restitution and historical reparation, an attempt to give voice to those who have been silenced over the centuries"
--Times Literary Supplement

"From demonology to royal ascensions, Gibson demonstrates how identity politics, power plays and cultural differences all crashed together to allow these historic injustices to occur... A well-rounded insight into some of the strangest and cruellest moments in history."
--Buzz Magazine

"Thirteen witch trials are brought vividly to life in Gibson's wide-ranging book"
--Daily Mail

"Gibson tells the story of the women and men whom those in power tried to silence -- sometimes permanently."
--BookRiot

"A fascinating and revelatory look at real witch hunts...[Gibson] fashion[s] a book that is at once readable and informative, an energetic and declarative statement on a particular brand of cruelty that is at its most historically hysterical and rotten"
--BookReporter

"A thought-provoking, sweeping work of social history."
--Kirkus

"An empathetic survey of witch trials spanning seven centuries and three continents... this vividly drawn and often surprising account succeeds in its aim to provide an expansive vision of the witch trial that extends far beyond Salem."
--Publishers Weekly

"It is wonderful to come across a book that breathes such fresh life and energy into a well-worked subject, covering a huge range of time and space with a unified, passionate and convincing message. Any expert is going to learn something new from it, any newcomer to be enthralled and motivated."
--Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch

"These stories of witchcraft, true and vividly told, demonstrate the potent reality of belief in evil and how in any era or place fear can be weaponised and marginal people, mostly women, labelled as wicked and dangerous. Together they comprise not just a history of witchcraft but a cautionary tale of the uncomfortably human habits of paranoia and persecution."
--Malcom Gaskill, author of The Ruin of All Witches

"By putting the focus on a selection of history's most fascinating--and disturbing--witch trials, the author simultaneously tells the wider history of the witch hunts, from the fifteenth century to the present day. It is a story at once archaic and shockingly modern. A brilliant book"
--Tracy Borman, author of Elizabeth's Women

"Erudite, insightful and provocative. This investigation of witch trials--and of the long shadow cast by women's vilification as witches over our modern lives - is essential, rage-inducing reading."
--Annie Garthwaite, author of Cecily and The King's Mother