A Review of Juliette Godot’s From the Drop of Heaven: Legends, Prejudice and Revenge

If there were a 4.5-star capability, this book would be deserving of it. Having just recently toured the Salem Witch Museum in Massachusetts, where I viewed a wall mural that compared the witch trials with a number of eerily similar occurrences that have taken place over the years, including very recently, I was intrigued to see where this author would take us. I was not disappointed. I thought that Salem was eye-opening, and then I read this book.

Juliette Godot takes the reader from 2023 and drops us smack in the middle of 1500s Europe. Here, the author shares a well-told story that grabbed me by the collar with the opening scene and held me tightly, putting front and center the reality of that time, while appropriately sharing the level of graphic violence.

The story is a tale of historical fiction that blends religious persecution and paranoia about those who are different, particularly those thought to be witches and those who may look different. The characters each had good and less-than-desirable traits, which only made them more relatable. Although the day-to-day chores and behaviors of the flawed humans did drag a bit at times, it only served to make them, and the goings-on, appear to be more history than fiction. By being written this way, the story better immerses the reader in the characters' issues, empathizes with their journeys, and deepens the reader's sense of their pain.

The basis of this book, on its own, is an interesting concept, but the addition of what could be her family's persecution and its mirroring of our time's activities make it an engaging, if not frightening, must-read. For change to occur, good people have to do good things, and 500 years later, Juliette Godot has done so.

From the Drop of Heaven Review: