Samantha “Sam” Mather is the protagonist of the novel. She is sarcastic and distrustful of anyone outside her family because she’s had a difficult time socially since she was a child. She is blamed for bad things that happen to anyone she tries to befriend. Her father, Charles, is her sole support and the person she is closest to, and since he's fallen into a coma, her relationship with her stepmother has grown increasingly contentious. She wears all black unintentionally imitating her Puritan ancestors, and at the beginning of the novel, she is only vaguely aware that she is descended from Cotton Mather, one of the key players of the Salem Witch Trials. It’s not until she returns to Salem that she realizes the full implications of her ancestor’s actions. She discovers she can cast spells and see spirits, one of which helps her and with whom she forms a romantic attachment. The irony of her being a witch is noted by both the spirit of her ancestor and her current peers and family. During the novel, she must learn several lessons about accepting her magic self, her dark history, and her responsibility to stop the cycle of violence her ancestors caused by ceasing to be a bystander.