Thriller · Free kit
The Witch
After losing her job and apartment, Julia Barlow retreats to Pemberton — her family’s sprawling estate in rural northern Massachusetts — to check on her aging grandmother Letitia and the aunt who shares the house. The grandfather clock stops at 3:41 a.m., lights flicker, and a voice cries for help from rooms that should be empty. Museum curator Henry Ziegler wants the property; Julia’s father pushes a sale and assisted living; great-aunt Ethel fights to keep the past buried. In 1692, Caroline Eldridge is accused of witchcraft on the land Archibald Eldridge calls his, while Jonas Reeve is scapegoated as the Night Reaper. Two centuries braid into one inheritance, and every ghost story may be a cover for something human, recent, and far worse.
“Some hauntings are history. Some are alibis.”
Complete free book club kit
BookClubee may earn a commission from Bookshop.org purchases, which supports independent bookshops.
Plan your meeting
The Witch Icebreakers
Answer in under 30 seconds. These connect to the book’s themes without spoiling the story.
Personality Reveal
1. When you stay somewhere unfamiliar, do you explore every room first — or claim one safe corner and avoid the rest?
Personality Reveal
2. Are you more likely to believe a creepy coincidence — or assume someone is manipulating the vibe?
Personality Reveal
3. In a family disagreement about an aging relative’s care, are you usually the pragmatist, the sentimental holdout, or the person who avoids the call?
Funny & Light
4. What’s the creakiest, most dramatic place you’ve ever slept — and did you actually get rest?
Funny & Light
5. If your family had a grandfather clock that stopped at one random minute every night, would you fix it, sell it, or lean into the lore for guests?
Funny & Light
6. What’s the most “New England autumn” thing you do even if you live nowhere near Massachusetts?
Would You Rather
7. Would you rather inherit a beautiful old house with strict family rules, or a modern apartment with zero history attached?
Would You Rather
8. Would you rather know every secret your grandparents kept — or keep the version of them you grew up with?
Would You Rather
9. Would you rather stay in a town where everyone knows your last name, or a city where nobody connects you to your family?
Hot Take
10. Hot take: “It’s probably just the house settling” is never a sufficient explanation. Agree or disagree?
Hot Take
11. Hot take: selling a family estate is sometimes the most loving choice. One sentence — where do you stand?
Hot Take
12. Hot take: museums preserve history; families preserve lies. Too cynical, or often true?
Personal Connection
13. What’s one family story you were told as a kid that you later learned was edited — or might still be?
Personal Connection
14. Who is the relative in your life most likely to say “we don’t talk about that” — and do you still obey?
Personal Connection
15. When you’ve had to move in with family (or let someone move in with you), what unspoken rule caused the most tension?