Description
Salem, Massachusetts, may be the strangest city on the planet. A single event in its 400 years of history-the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-transformed it into the Capital of Creepy in America. But Salem is a seasonal town-and its season happens to be Halloween. Every October, this small city of 40,000 swells to close to half a million as witches, goblins, ghouls, and ghosts (and their admirers) descend on Essex Street. For the fall of 2015, occult enthusiast and Edgar Award-winning writer J.W. Ocker moved his family of four to downtown Salem to experience firsthand a season with the witch, visiting all of its historical sites and macabre attractions. In between, he interviews its leaders and citizens, its entrepreneurs and visitors, its street performers and Wiccans, its psychics and critics, creating a picture of this unique place and the people who revel in, or merely weather, its witchiness.
Review:
[A] lively chronicle-part travel guide, part history lesson...Ocker moves easily among the archivists, historians, and performers he interviews, and he describes the carnival atmosphere that descends upon Witch City with enthusiasm and vividness. -- Publisher's Weekly (starred review) An entertaining and historical guide to the varied sites of Salem, with Ocker interviewing everyone from the mayor to local archivists to men in scary costumes, covering burial sites of witch trial judges, and perhaps the most awesome Halloween street party ever described in print, with Ocker's good humor and touch of sarcasm marking his readable style. -- Library Journal
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