What secrets does she keep amidst the charred remains of the Big House? Which spells has she conjured to threaten their children? And why is she so wary of the charismatic preacher man who promises to save them all? When sickness sweeps across her tight-knit community, Rue finds herself the focus of suspicion. But this new world brings new dangers, and Rue’s old magic may be no match for them. Times have changed since her mother Miss May Belle held the power to influence the life and death of her fellow slaves. The other is that Miss Rue – midwife, healer, crafter of curses – will know what to do.īut for once Rue doesn’t know. That’s one thing the people on the old plantation are sure of. The pale-skinned, black-eyed baby is a bad omen. But how do you escape the ghosts of the past?Ī stunning debut novel with echoes of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Sara Collins’ The Confessions of Frannie Langton I recommend this book for those of you interested in reading with other readers so that it can be discussed beyond the pages and analyzed in depth.You’re free to decide your future. We also read a few passages from the book aloud, specifically from some of the scenes inside of the plantation house, which lead to an engaging conversation. Thankfully, I read Conjure Women with my local book club and was extremely grateful for the questions provided in the back of book they helped us to navigate conversation and analyze the book in depth. There are some parts that are hard to get through due heavy content including racism, slavery, minstrel shows, rape, death, childbirth, loss of a child, and more. For anyone interested in this book, my advice is to go into this with an open mind, take your time, and take breaks when needed. I found myself re-reading sections over and over, in order to understand what exactly was going on. I marked several pages while reading this book because there were many beautiful descriptions that needed to be unpacked, beyond just the surface. The various time frames are important though, because they show how the past continuously haunts the present. It goes back and forth in time and occasionally fluctuates in narration, which confused me at times. With a history and bloodline that has been ghosted and silenced, grief and trauma are themes heavily woven throughout the story.Ĭonjure Women is a book I recommend reading slowly as it interweaves stories of enslaved people, plantation owners, lovers, murderers, and generational trauma. She is said to be “everybody’s mama and she was nobody’s” (234). Ma Do, for example, endures the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, and after being taken away from her country, she has multiple sons who are all taken from her as babies and sold. Tradition, spirituality, and religion are all questioned throughout Conjure Women and each character has a past they are haunted by. In order to survive and exist in the present, characters must confront the ghosts of their pasts. Foxes and birds appear to symbolize ghosts from the ancestral past, sometimes warning characters (and the reader) during times of danger, death, and rebellion. All of the characters living on the plantation have a history that isn’t easily laid to rest and are reminded of this when animals appear both in real life and in visions. Foxes and birds act as tricksters throughout the story, and sometimes it is hard to distinguish the differences between “reality” and dreams. Although historical fiction, this book includes folklore and contains a sense of magic with the symbolism and vivid imagery. I love historical fiction and felt this book gave an important voice to Black experiences, specifically Black females and healers living on Southern plantations, before and after the Civil War. Both women are powerful and determined healers who also work as midwives, carrying the secrets of their community (inside and outside of the plantation house) during the Antebellum and Reconstruction periods. The story centers around two generations of enslaved women living on a Southern plantation before, during, and after the Civil War. Conjure Women is Afia Atakora’s debut novel! Beautifully written and masterfully crafted, Conjure Women is multilayered and should be read with special attention and care.
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