The Witches of Cambridge

Ava Abbot grows up isolated on a remote apple orchard in Genesis, Maine, with her strict parents. Born with an 11th finger that was surgically removed, she bears a scar that marks her as different. Neighbors whisper that she is a fairy child, and her parents repress her unusual abilities, which include attracting crows and floating slightly off the ground. They burn any library books she brings home and tie her down when she attempts to fly. Though Ava’s parents constantly remind her that she is not special in any way, she shows a remarkable aptitude for learning, receiving straight A’s in and teaching herself Italian in a single year. When a family heirloom, a silver necklace, turns black against her skin, it confirms she has failed some unspoken test. Desperate to escape her confined life, Ava secretly applies to Radcliffe College—a women’s college established as a sister school to Harvard University—with the help of her science teacher. When she is accepted with a scholarship, her parents reluctantly agree to let her go, warning her to work hard, keep her head down, and stay out of trouble. She arrives alone in Cambridge in the fall of 1950, finally feeling a sense of freedom and possibility.

Lauren Bell, another incoming Radcliffe student, comes from a long line of Cambridge witches living in a magically concealed house on Brattle Street. She intends to join the Lilith Society, a secret organization for women of her kind. The women in her family are born with markers like sharp teeth and an 11th finger. After her archaeologist parents died in an accident in Greece, Lauren and her older brother, Lionel, were raised by their grandmother, Lillian. The trauma of her parents’ death pushed Lauren toward dark magic, known as the “Crooked Path.” The narrative connects the historical persecution of witches by figures like the Mathers to the contemporary political witch hunts of the McCarthy era, noting that anyone who openly breaks social norms risks persecution, whether in the 17th century or the 20th. Before her death, Lillian encourages her grandchildren to repair the world’s heartbreak. Lionel, a Harvard medical student with the gift of sight—an ability to see the future, though not precisely but in vague outlines—remains optimistic and believes in love. Because he is gay, he must seek love in secret, for instance, dancing in secret clubs that are frequently raided by police. In contrast, Lauren, who studies dangerous grimoires—some with poison-laced covers—believes witches should avoid love because they have more important things to do. Lionel’s magical sight tells him that despite her intentions, his sister will not be able to avoid love forever.

In a defiant gesture before leaving for Radcliffe, Lauren cuts off her long hair. At the dorm, she meets her roommate, Ava, and is immediately dismissive, claiming the more desirable bed for herself. Lauren explains that they have been placed together as pledges for a secret organization, the Lilith Society. To herself, she confirms Ava’s magical lineage by noticing the scar on Ava’s hand where an 11th finger was removed. She notes that Ava talks to the crows that have followed her from Maine, though Ava herself does not know what this means. That evening, both find invitations under their pillows for a midnight initiation on the Cambridge Common. That night, both Lauren and Ava climb down a rope ladder from their window together. Ava remains reluctant to follow, remembering her mother’s warnings. When she declares that there is nothing special about her, Lauren asks her what color her blood is when she menstruates. Ava doesn’t know, as she has never looked, which Lauren interprets as another sign that Ava is afraid to know herself. She pricks Ava’s arm with a penknife, showing her that her blood is black. When a drop of Ava’s blood hits the ground, a hyacinth immediately sprouts and blooms. When Ava still refuses to join the Lilith society, Lauren angrily tells her to go back to the dorms. Just as Lauren is about to cross the road, Ava has a vision in which she sees Lauren’s crumpled wounded body lying in the road, with hyacinths blooming all around her. She grabs Lauren’s arm and pulls her back just before a motorcycle speeds by. Breathless and shaking, Lauren declares that Ava has saved her life, but Ava states that if Lauren hadn’t told her to go back, she herself would have been the one hit by the motorcycle. In this way they decide that each has saved the other’s life, making them blood sisters forever.

The Lilith Society is a secret group founded long before Radcliffe College existed, shortly after the first witch of Cambridge came to settle in the marshlands in 1693. Though superficially similar to the secret societies for men at Harvard—organizations intended to preserve the privileges of the elite while shielding their membership from outsiders—it is antithetical to these groups in that it exists to protect the marginalized. Its motto is Simul fugimus (“We fly together” (48)). The society operates from Lilith House, offering members a place to live and study magic away from Radcliffe’s paternalistic rules. As the ceremony concludes, Ava realizes she knows nothing about her true identity. Unseen in the shadows, a descendant of Cotton Mather, who presided over the cruel witch trials of the 17th century, watches her, recognizing her from his dreams and vowing to avoid her even as he knows he will fall in love with her.

Ava and Lauren move into Lilith House. Ava takes a waitressing job at Eliot House, a Harvard residential hall, where she befriends Maureen Healy, another witch. There, she meets Jamie Mather, the boy who was watching her from a tree on the morning of her initiation, a handsome and arrogant student from the lineage of the infamous Salem witch-hunters. Jamie rudely sweeps silverware to the floor for Ava to collect; the silverware turns black at her touch—a sign of her magic—though she quickly wipes it clean before anyone notices. As other students mock her, a flock of twelve crows flies into the dining hall, creating chaos and protecting Ava. She quits her job in frustration. On her way home, she rescues a mistreated dog, whom she names Jack. Motivated by her encounter with Jamie, Ava goes to the Divinity School library to research the Mather family’s history. Sitting on the floor sifting through sermons in late October, she discovers an uncatalogued envelope containing a manuscript that begins “Speak and you shall create. Abra kadabra” (78).

The narrator, a young woman with inherent magic, recounts her story from 1692. She is a servant in a wealthy household until her master assaults her; she curses him, and when his wife kills him by poisoning, the authorities blame the narrator rather than the wife. Incarcerated in London’s notorious Bridewell Prison, she keeps her magical abilities a secret to avoid the worse fate of being tried for witchcraft. Her opportunity for a new life arrives when Maria “May” Mather, the wife of Reverend and Harvard President Increase Mather, tours the prison. The narrator successfully pleads to be taken as an indentured servant, a decision solidified after she saves her new mistress from an attack by another inmate. Though Increase is displeased, he allows his wife to take the narrator into their service. The narrator soon discovers that mistress is also a witch, revealed when she pricks her finger and her blood is black, the same as the narrator’s. The narrator travels with the Mathers back to the American colonies, feeling gratitude and a bond with her mistress but also recognizing their philosophical divide: While the mistress hides her true nature, the narrator is resolved to trust herself above all else.

On Halloween, known to witches as Samhain, the local magical community gathers at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Lionel Bell attends, privately distraught after witnessing the death of a young woman from a botched illegal abortion. Ava arrives to meet Jamie, whom she had invited. She confronts him with what she has learned about Increase Mather’s wife, Maria, suggesting that Jamie too may have magical abilities. She points out the scar on his hand, which he has always been told was from a childhood injury, but which she suspects is the same as hers: the place where an 11th finger was removed. She reveals her own magical nature by showing him her black blood. Jamie reacts with angry denial. Later, at his family’s home in Sudbury, he stabs himself with a penknife and is shocked to confirm that his blood is also black. Ava spends the Christmas holiday with the Bells, studying love spells while thinking of Jamie. At Sudbury, Jamie gets into a fight with his father and his older brother, Brent. During the break, Lionel liberates a group of beagles from a hospital research lab. On New Year’s Eve, a drunken Jamie is drawn to the Bells’ house. He sees Ava through a window but flees before she can reach him.

The school year ends amid the political tension of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s trial and conviction as Soviet spies. At the Lilith House farewell dinner, a graduating senior named Claire is discovered to be missing; a locator spell and a truth finder’s spell are attempted, but both fail, and her parents blame Lilith House. Lauren leaves for her family’s summer home in Provincetown, while Ava puts off returning to Maine. Both Ava and Jamie linger in Cambridge and independently find their way to the Charles River. While there, Ava’s dog, Jack, chases geese into the water and becomes trapped in underwater weeds. Despite never having swum before due to a doctor’s warning that the water would harm his lungs, Jamie wades in and swims to Jack. Ava follows, and they discover that neither can dive below the surface—a known trait of witches. They work together to pull the struggling dog to safety. As they stand drenched on the riverbank, their animosity dissolves, replaced by the undeniable reality of their shared nature and powerful connection.