How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy’s Guide to Silencing Women by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi * * * *
I read How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy’s Guide to Silencing Women by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, prompt number 43, “Two books written by real-life partners or spouses (1).” This book was written by the women behind the Witches of Scotland podcast, and that connection really shapes the whole book. It is not just a history of the Scottish witch trials. It is also part of a wider attempt to make people remember them properly. The book looks mainly at the Scottish witch trials, but it does not treat them as a vague dark chapter from the past. It explains how they happened. It looks at the religious atmosphere, the economic pressures, the legal structures, the books and ideas that fed the panic, and the way fear could be turned into accusation. It also goes into individual stories, which was important because the scale of the trials can make the victims blur together. When the book pauses on one accused woman, one community, one interroga...