Reviewed by Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite

If only the two paranormal investigators Heather and Alex had known what awaited them in Manningtree, perhaps they would never have agreed to drive to Dawn’s house. Heather and Alex had dealt with haunted houses before, but all their preceding exploits were nothing like they encountered there. Although the story is set in the present, the spirits haunting Dawn’s house date back to the mid-seventeenth century. During this period, a family of four women (living in Manningtree) had suffered at the hands of the ruthless Matthew Hopkins. Dubbed as the Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins had subjected the family to his despicable ways because the four women (including Sarah the youngest) were allegedly witches. What exactly did the family go through and will Heather who has special abilities and Alex succeed in freeing the haunted house from these spirits? Find out more in Becky Wright’s Daughters of the Oak.

Becky Wright’s versatile and unique style of writing produces a beautifully dynamic, intensively harrowing, terrifying, and spellbinding narrative. Her use of both earlier and contemporary language gives her scenes a perfect touch of the seventeenth and twenty-first-century lifestyles. I learned a lot about the culture of the seventeenth-century Britons. Her succinct sentences contain vivid depictions, making her scenes impressively colorful. She harnesses tension, suspense, and sentiment in her words. Some of the scenes were agonizing, somber, and they almost reduced me to tears. Her characters are well developed and she lucidly brings out their traits. Apart from being intelligent, Heather’s bravery knows no bounds. Wright switches between the present and the past with ease, maintaining a steady flow to her storyline. There is pain, betrayal, injustice, love, darkness, loathing, secrets, adventure, terror, and so much more. Enthusiasts of horror stories with a touch of a dystopian theme and an intriguing plot will love Daughters of the Oak as much as I did.