When her father falls into a mysterious coma, native New Yorker Samantha Mather moves with her stepmother to Salem, hometown of her ancestors, only to be faced with a chilly reception. Sam is related to Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for the Salem Witch Trials, and the descendants of some of those witches are less than pleased to have a Mather back in town. But the rift runs deeper than that: Sam's presence unlocks a generations-old curse, and she must join forces with a bitter ghost and a group of girls convinced she's the enemy if she has any chance at stopping it. The many plot threads ghost story, love story, historical update crowd the narrative, but debut author Mather adds depth thanks to intriguing personal experience: she is an actual descendant of Cotton Mather and witnessed Salem's prejudices toward the name firsthand. Witches, and the witch trials in particular, are a perennially high-interest topic, and this interpretation should snare an audience.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2016 Booklist

When her father's illness forces 15-year-old Samantha "Sam" Mather and her stepmother to move to Salem, Mass., her family's connection to the witch trials makes Sam a target of the Descendants, girls whose ancestors were among the accused witches. After Sam befriends a charming young ghost named Elijah, she begins to piece together just how much of Salem's past continues to haunt its present; forming a tentative truce with the Descendants may be the only way to break a 300-year-old curse. Mathers's characters are strong and well-rounded, but her skill as an audiobook narrator pales in comparison. She carries the story along at a decent pace, but she never fully realizes the dramatic depth and nuances of her own material. When she comes alive is the very end of the book, in her the author's note. There her personality shines through as she details her family history (including the fact that she is a descendant of the real Cotton Mather), how she came to write the book, and how she feels the witch trials are relevant today. The same enthusiasm and expressiveness would have raised this audiobook from serviceable to memorable. Ages 12-up. A Knopf hardcover. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

When Cotton Mather's lineal descendant, several generations along, moves to modern-day Salem, Massachusetts, she triggers a curse that's been in effect since 1692.Bad luck has dogged those around 15-year-old Sam Mather all her life, and now her dad is in a mysterious coma that's strained finances so much that she and her stepmother have left New York to live in the ancestral manse, the home of Sam's late, estranged grandmother. In short order Sam earns the enmity of the Descendants, weird kids who wear black and claim to be descended from the infamous trials' accused witches. She also becomes acquainted with cute boy-next-door Jaxon, who seems determined to like her, and hot ghost Elijah, whose initial hostility modulates quickly to attraction. But bad stuff keeps happening, including deaths. Could there be a connection to the centuries-old trials? Duh. Author Mather, also a descendant, claims in an afterword to be trying to plumb the forces that lead to witch hunts, both historical and modern, but her book is far less nuanced than that intention suggests. Sam is drawn alternately to Jaxon and Elijah (the rules governing his corporeality are conveniently fluid), tries to earn the trust of the Descendants, and fights with her stepmother before the wildly confusing climax. Readers familiar with the real history are likely to gnash their teeth at the book's simplistic liberties.Pure contrivancenothing more. (Paranormal romance. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Samantha Mather's father is in a coma. She moves to his childhood home in Salem, MA, where her new school's mean girl clique is made up of descendants of accused witches, and they despise Sam because she's related to Cotton Mather, who played a part in getting their relatives hanged. A ghost from the witch trial era helps Sam discover who is casting the spells causing the unexplained rashes and deadly accidents. To break the curse and save her father, Sam does battle with an evil entity in a creepy, action-filled climax. The author is, in fact, a descendant of Cotton Mather, and she narrates, giving Sam a believable voice and plenty of emotional depth. Mather strains a bit with the male voices, but that is easy to ignore as the plot races along to the big finale. VERDICT A good choice for fans of psychological thrillers, action, and horror. ["A captivating and highly recommended read. Teens will not want this tale to end": SLJ 6/16 review of the Knopf book.]-C.A. Fehmel. St. Louis County Library © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

When NYC teen Samantha--descended from colonial witch hunter Cotton Mather--arrives in Salem, she's immediately targeted by the Descendants, kids whose relatives were persecuted as witches. Working with a ghost inhabiting her family home, Samantha unravels the mystery behind Salem's centuries-old cycle of vengeance. The author, related to the real Cotton Mather (per the author's note), injects real history into this riveting supernatural thriller. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.