Other real- life props and events are scattered throughout the novel capturing the atmosphere of the times perfectly. The story is a Gothic lover’s dream, with the suspense building and building, becoming nearly unbearable. But the story is also one of courage, of hope, determination and of friendship and unbreakable bonds forged out of desperation. She hires Alice as midwife who has untraditional methods but Fleetwood accepts any help she may get. As they unconventional friendship grows, King James’ minions wander around to accuse the innocent women for being witches, weeding them out from the community. Heading to the final glyph stone outside of Bronzhaven, the familiars and the seven animals needed to summon the Shifting Fortress encounter a brutal battle between Paksahara's zombie forces and Queen Loranella's troops. They manage to make it to the third glyph stone, and summon the Shifting Fortress. The familiars and a few of their animal friends journey inside to stop Paksahara. After being accosted in the fortress by Dead warriors, the familiars' friends stay behind to fend them off, leaving Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert to continue on. In ‘The Familiars’ by Stacey Halls, our main character, Fleetwood, who was a young child bride, has by the age of seventeen had three miscarriages. Married to Richard Shuttleworth, who has an earring and a plush closet, she’s still deeply in love after four years of marriage. But, if she cannot bear his heir, then as a woman, what does she bring to this coupling? That’s the idea of the times. Women are mere possessions to be handed from father to husband along with any properties attached. Fleetwood does not think she’s very pretty, but it seems there is quite a bit of property that goes to Richard, a financial boon perhaps? There is a growing appetite for viewing the world through a different lens and for hearing the honest reality of our experiences,” she says. “With Queenie, I didn’t want to write an issue novel but rather something that reflected both mine and my friend’s experiences while making readers laugh and cry.”

But can Fleetwood keep Alice and her baby safe, and give her husband Richard the baby he so desperately wants! The Familiars is a historical novel set in the era when people who were a little different were accused of being witches and killed, not only in the UK but across the world too. One of the most famous and best-recorded witch trials in the UK was in Pendle, Lancashire, now dubbed the home of the ‘Pendle Witches’, where twelve people went on trial and ten found guilty. There are times when I get absolutely giddy over a book that I’ve just finished, so much so that I start babbling to my neighbors, call up family members, talk about it to strangers in stores despite their strange looks as though I’ve lost my mind. That is exactly what I have found myself doing with Stacey Halls new book, The Familiars. Halls, a journalist, grew up near Pendle Hill and was fascinated by the trials from a young age. Drawn from real-life figures, her novel tells the story of Fleetwood Shuttleworth, a 17-year-old pregnant noblewoman who finds herself caught up in the trials when her midwife, Alice Gray, is accused of witchcraft. Married at 13, and three miscarriages later, Fleetwood needs Alice to help her deliver a healthy baby.

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The atmosphere of the time was perfectly recreated I felt, and found this historical fiction taken from fact enjoyable reading from start to finish * Mrs Blogg's Books * Corcoran, Sorcha (August 25, 2011). "IADT graduate to co-direct big budget animated feature in LA". SiliconRepublic . Retrieved September 14, 2011.

In September 2010, it was revealed that Sony Pictures Animation will adapt The Familiars into a 3D animated feature film, with Doug Sweetland set to direct it. [5] According to the books' authors, the film was scheduled to be released in 2014 but it got cancelled. [6] Fergal Reilly joined Sweetland to co-direct the film, [7] but in 2013, he left to co-direct The Angry Birds Movie. [8] In January 2013, when it was announced that Sweetland will direct a 2015 film for Warner Bros. (that would eventually become Storks from Warner Animation Group in 2016), Sony Pictures Animation responded that " The Familiars is cancelled." [9] Epstein and Jacobson said in September 2013 in an interview. [10] It follows two girls at the home, Martha and Josephine, as well as the eminent figure of Miss Coutts, who privately is plagued with her own demons. The publisher says this is Halls’ “most ambitious and captivating novel yet”. The Familiars is an extremely well written fictionalized account of the Pendle witch trials in 17th-century Lancashire, England. Jardine, William (January 7, 2013). "UPDATED: Warner Bros. Looks to Rejuvenate its Animation House". A113 Animation . Retrieved January 9, 2013. Halls said: “Nothing excites me more than discovering women’s stories that have been consigned to a dusty drawer of history, and when I came across Urania Cottage, the ‘house of fallen women’, I knew I had to write about it.Fleetwood is seventeen and mistress of Gawthorpe Hall. She has been unable to carry a child to full term so when she meets Alice Grey, a young midwife, she begs her to help her have a healthy baby. Alice promises to help and this is the start of an unlikely friendship. The Familiars" written by Stacey Halls is a story based on a true historical timeline and real life people, namely Fleetwood Shuttleworth born in 1595, who was a woman of gentry and mistress at Gawthorpe Hall. It is a work of fiction based on the premise of the Pendle witch trial in Lancaster 1612 and sadly highlights the plight of women disproportionately targeted as part of witch hunts during the time period set. It's superbly produced, a thing of genuine physical beauty but, most importantly, the writing is immense and mesmerising * Fully Booked *

There is none of the harrowing detail of the trial itself, none of the historical violence or threat of violence so prevalent in Sarah Moss's wonderful Ghost Wall, for example, or Martina Devlin's The House Where it Happened, an evocative reimagining of the Armagh witch trials. When I found out about the house, my first question was why would they do it? And my second was, did it go to plan?" Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn’t supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy.

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Sarah Davis-Goff, who runs independent publisher Tramp Press, agrees. “I do think that the #MeToo movement has been quite enabling for women in that it’s confirmed our worst suspicions,” she says. “There is something incredibly powerful about finding out that you are not alone, and what we’re seeing in a lot of upcoming fiction is authors working through this and really digging into their experiences.” I've just read The Familiars by Stacey Halls and enjoyed it immensely. I don't know much about the C17th witch trials so was really gripped. I loved the bravery of the heroine and wonderful period detail * A J Pearce, author of DEAR MRS BIRD * Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong. THE FAMILIARS is such a Powerful, Heart Breaking and Enthralling read, it Pulled me in and Got Under My Skin!

As their old mentor Kalstaff was dead, the three loyals and familiars are completing their studies with Sorceress Edna. All of a sudden, when human magic mysteriously disappears from the land, Queen Loranella is rendered powerless, and is thus unable to stop the impending army of the Dead led by Paksahara which is about to invade the land. Hence, it is once more up to the familiars to save the land of Vastia. Her face was long and narrow, her eyes large, their color unusual even from a distance: a warm gold, like new coins. There was something fiercely intelligent, almost masculine, in her gaze, and though she was crouched down and I standing, for a moment I felt afraid, as though I was the one who had been discovered. The lives of two young women intersect in a novel that imagines the story behind a famous 17th-century witch trial in northern England. Rising tension, boiling anger and atmosphere surrounded by paranoia create doubts on Fleetwood‘s mind for making a choice about who she could trust!

The Familiars is an intriguing tale of young women trying to survive life in the 17th century in a time of accusation, persecution and betrayal. The Familiars Review: My Opinion I loved this book!! This is the style of Gothic mystery that I first fell in love with. This debut author has done an outstanding job of creating a heavily laden atmosphere of suspense, casting doubts in all directions and pitting our heroine against those she should be able to trust, against society, and against time. Rather than a tale centred around the Pendle Witch Trials, it would be truer to say that the trials ran adjacent to the story. I would have enjoyed learning more about the “witches” and indeed about Alice herself, but this story was Fleetwood’s. Similarly, the story mentions “the familiars” a couple of times and hints at it in the mysterious appearance of animals, but these titular entities could have been explored a lot more. The story highlights the dangers of being a woman in the 17th Century where the use of herbs or a disfigured face was enough to be accused of witchcraft. It reminds us how, thankfully, times have changed. Having read Stacy Hall’s The Foundling I couldn't wait to get my hands on The Familiars and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Gilbert, a familiar to Marianne, a hapless tree frog with the ability to see visions of the past, present, and future in pools of water.