This book was suspenseful and disturbing, as a good horror story should be. I had many moments of saying "Oh no!" I found that I couldn't put it down even when the horror elements were a little nauseating for me. Due's got chops.
The book draws heavily on the persistence of African religion in African-American life. The protagonist is the grand-daughter of a practitioner of voudoun who has come under a curse from a malicious spirit in spite of her long service to the god Papa Legba. Several of the characters believed in a syncretistic mix of Christianity and traditional African religion. They engaged in "ritual practices to gain power"--magic.
I appreciated the way that the author credited her research, explaining that people who want to really understand this religious tradition should read non-fiction. That was respectful.
An interesting thing about this book for me was that the female protagonist could blame the bad (abusive, violent) behavior of her ex-husband and (and to a lesser extent, of her son) on demonic possession. This created what was for me a very uncomfortable scene where the ex-husband is really valiantly resisting the impulse to stalk and abuse his ex-wife.
Another piece that felt uncomfortable to me was the incorporation of real-life racist violence into the fictional narrative. Knowing what I know about African-American history, I could recognize some of the incidents that happened to the characters as too true-to-life to go into a story about demonic possession. Shouldn't all novels tell some truth? This one did, even though it was a horror story and all about making things exotic and entertaining. I want to read more by this author.
The book draws heavily on the persistence of African religion in African-American life. The protagonist is the grand-daughter of a practitioner of voudoun who has come under a curse from a malicious spirit in spite of her long service to the god Papa Legba. Several of the characters believed in a syncretistic mix of Christianity and traditional African religion. They engaged in "ritual practices to gain power"--magic.
I appreciated the way that the author credited her research, explaining that people who want to really understand this religious tradition should read non-fiction. That was respectful.
An interesting thing about this book for me was that the female protagonist could blame the bad (abusive, violent) behavior of her ex-husband and (and to a lesser extent, of her son) on demonic possession. This created what was for me a very uncomfortable scene where the ex-husband is really valiantly resisting the impulse to stalk and abuse his ex-wife.
Another piece that felt uncomfortable to me was the incorporation of real-life racist violence into the fictional narrative. Knowing what I know about African-American history, I could recognize some of the incidents that happened to the characters as too true-to-life to go into a story about demonic possession. Shouldn't all novels tell some truth? This one did, even though it was a horror story and all about making things exotic and entertaining. I want to read more by this author.
