The Witches of Cambridge

The cursed onyx necklace appears in both the 17th-century and 20th-century storylines. How does the function and significance of the necklace change as it passes between characters across these two eras?

What tensions emerge between the novel’s official institutional settings and the private spaces created by witches? How do alternative institutions like Lilith House coexist with the larger and more restrictive institutions that house them?

What role does Jack the dog play in Ava Abbot’s relationships with other characters and in her confrontations with authority? Does he symbolize aspects of Ava’s relationship to the society around her?

Both Lionel Bell and Professor Eugene Sharpe bring magical traditions together with formal academic or medical training. How do their differing methods and motivations compare, and what do their choices reveal about the uses of specialized knowledge?

Compare the roles played by maternal and grandmotherly figures in the novel. How do their actions shape their descendants’ understanding of their heritage and their choices in the present?

Rose Bridewell adopts the name Rob Bridewell to buy land, and Jamie Mather is forced to assume the identity of Luke Burroughs. How do these changes in identity reflect the relationship between naming, power, and survival in the novel?

Compare Lauren Bell’s relationships with Professor Eugene Sharpe and the tattoo artist Carrick. What do these two relationships reveal about how she defines power and trust?

How does Hoffman adapt the differing historical legacies of Increase and Cotton Mather to structure the generational conflicts within the novel? What parallels or contrasts exist between this father/son relationship and the present-timeline relationship between Paul and Jamie Mather?