Gittel by Laurie Schneider; Speechless in Achten Tan (Book 1 Of The Sands of Achten Tan) by Debbie Iancu-Haddad; Slumber Nevermore by R.J. Garcia

 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider 

This is a brief summary of my review. The main review can be found on LitPick 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider is reminiscent of many coming of age books like Anne of Green Gables and The Little House books. It's not long on plot. It prefers instead to focus on various individual conflicts in Gittel’s life that test her character and teach her various lessons.

13 year old Gittel Borenstein is part of a Jewish family that emigrated from East Europe because of a pogrom to Mill Creek, Wisconsin with 12 other Jewish families. The book focuses on various events in Gittel’s young life such as bullying from Antisemitic classmates, conflicts with her more traditional Orthodox family, a budding romance with a local boy, and her participation in a Chautauqua.  

The book is strong on character, time, and place. The Borensteins emigrated for their safety but still feel out of place in this rural American country. Gittel has to suffer from insults and threats from other students, particularly Karl Leckner, whose religious Antisemitic father takes every opportunity to compare them to demons. Gittel shows her strengths by using witty comebacks and verbally challenging her antagonists. She even describes her mouth as the sharpest weapon that she and her friends, Irene and Emily, have.

Gittel struggles with not only societal conflicts but those within her own family. Gittel is a maturing young woman who is fascinated with the American way of life while her traditional Orthodox family mostly clings to the tight-knit Jewish community around them. Gittel makes gentile friends, develops her interests in singing, dancing, and reading, and uses her talent in public speaking during a Chautauqua. She nurtures aspirations to continue her education and become an actress or writer despite some of her family's concerns and soft objections. 

The most heartwarming moments are when Gittel and her family come to an understanding about her aspirations and interests and she recognizes their own adaptability as well as her own. She recognizes loving bonds which while hidden and not always expressed out loud, but are always felt. 

Gittel is the Yiddish word for “good” which is a decent description of the book. However, it's more than good. Gittel is great.

Speechless in Achten Tan (Book 1 in The Sands of Achten Tan) by Debbie Iancu-Haddad

This is a brief summary of my review. The main review can be found on LitPick. 

Speechless in Achten Tan is a Fantasy novel that will appeal to YA and Adult Readers with its captivating lead character and her search for her personal power.

 Mila, a mute cavern gnome, goes through a test to be considered worthy to study magic. After she fails the test, her mentor, Nora, sends her to the desert world of Achten Tan to study magic under Gerwyn, a wise and powerful witch. While in Achten Tan, Mila finds romance and friendship, becomes involved in a power struggle against the despotic Bone Chief Opu Haku, and discovers her strength and voice.

After her test, Mila is in despair because she doesn't conform to what her community believes are their standards of maturity. She is deprived of the ability to speak and to practice magic. She cannot ascend in their world so she is deprived of her agency. The dramatic irony is the reason behind her failure. Mila’s brother, Turosh, drowned over the same waterfall where she was being tested. She was temporarily overcome with grief, lost control, and failed the test. A moment of emotion remembering a traumatic event that shaped her youth and motivated her to continue studying ended up becoming a barrier in her pursuit of magic and full acceptance into her society.

As with the heroes in many legends and books in the genre, Mila is sent to continue her journey elsewhere. She has to leave to continue her studies. Her journey to Achten Tan also allows her to connect with her past, present, and future. Her boyfriend from the village, Geb, is also in Achten Tan to train as a healer. He provides an emotional center and keeps Mila focused as her abilities increase.

She also befriends Kaii, son of Opu Haku, the Bone Chief. Mila's friendship allows the son to step out from his father's tyrannical shadow and fight against him. Mila widens the scope of her magical pursuits to make long lasting changes with other kingdoms including her own. 

Mila is even able to reconcile her grief over Tarush’s death. She comes to terms with the loss and its aftereffects. While death and loss are still painful for her, she is able to set them aside and move forward on her path to maturity.

This is a Fantasy novel that many, especially young people, will relate to as they follow their own paths, discover their own abilities, and gain their own voices.

Slumber Nevermore by R.J. Garcia

R.J. Garcia knows how to keep Readers up at night. With the anthology, Slumber Nevermore she crosses genres to give the Readers a full effect of dark twisted tales that deliver on chills, ominous energy, and unforgettable mental images. 

There are seven stories but the best are:

“The Stolen Child”-This story is a Dark Fantasy that plays on those frightening magical creatures: Fairies.

Garcia refrains from the wholesome fairytale Disney image of fairies and focuses instead on the variations from myth and legends where they are powerful, capricious, demand to be respected, and should be kept at a safe distance. 

Mae is anxious about her sister, Emmie, who disappeared right in front of her. She has this sensation that they had been watched and out of the corner of her eye, she thinks that strange figures appear and disappear. She always suspected that there were fairies in the woods. Could she be right? Spoiler Alert: She is.

The fairies are written as ominous and secretive. They appear as orbs of light, shrill whistles, or silhouettes. Mae isn't sure if they are dreams or if they are real. Then when she finally talks to them, she isn't sure if they are good, evil, or neutral with their own moral code. They could go either way. Their ambiguity is their strength and while she is with them, Mae is completely at their mercy. As long as she is in their world, they could do whatever they want to her and no one would know about it. 

“The Stolen Child” is a modern fairy tale told to a Horror loving audience. Anyone who reads fairy tales knows that fairies can be sinister or helpful but are rarely the main antagonists. Instead the real villains are often a lot closer to the protagonist’s home than that. Those villains are cruel, malicious, and bring the worst misfortunes. 

“Lipstick”-This story is a Paranormal Horror that should not be read by anyone with coulrophobia. 

10 year old Billy sneaks out one night to see a carnival. The night of rickety rides, junk food, and fun to be scared thrills turns to terror when he encounters a demonic looking clown. The clown not only makes a formidable impression but makes him an offer that haunts him for years.

Dark carnivals might be cliched and scary clowns even more so, but they are used so often because they work. Carnivals can give off a sinister vibe when one thinks about it. These places of supposed amusement contain rides that are quickly put together by people who might have dubious reputations and are certainly in a hurry. A guest’s safety depends on them. Is it any wonder that they inspire fear? If you read books like Something Wicked This Way Comes or saw movies like Freaks or Carnival of Souls among others, you know what I am talking about.

Then there are clowns. They hide their true faces, come up close and face to face with children, seem impossibly cherry, and wear garish makeup. Lest we forget fictional clowns like Pennywise or real ones like John Wayne Gacy who certainly had dark sides. A clown can be terrifying. A carnival can be spooky. A clown in a carnival is frequent but also can give you that instant chill down the spine, the chill that warns you that maybe you should have stayed home.

Billy ignored that chilly warning and ultimately paid a huge price for it. This brief moment changes his life in many disturbing ways that leaves him traumatized and alone. The final paragraphs show the complete impact that this demonic clown had over his life to the point that Billy can't separate himself from him.

“Sister Witches”-It’s rare to have a Horror short story told from the point of view of the monster, but this story does and turns a story that would normally herald fear for the victim instead invites pity and regret for the monster. 

Cassandra is one of three witches. The other two are her sisters, Sheba and Celeste. The trio kill mortals and absorb their youth to remain forever young and beautiful. Their latest victim is Tommy, an aging man who is residing in a nursing home. 

The witches' goal is to preserve their youth. Their absorption of others’s essences is graphic but is comparable to an addiction rather than an unexplainable supernatural or demonic force. It ruins the mortals but also the witches as well.

Cassandra and her sisters absorb the essence not because they want to, but because they think that they have to and are unable to survive without it. This takes a toll on Cassandra in particular. She has become someone who isn't terrifying or frightening. Instead, she's weary and tired of life. She is ready to die but is unable to. 

In a way the fear doesn't come from an outside source, but from within. If we compare their immortality to an addiction, the fear comes from feeling forced to get that immortality and what it would be like to live without it. Cassandra fears what they have done, what they will do, and what would happen if that eternity would end. She is simultaneously longing for death and afraid of what happens if it comes. 

“The Axeman Among Us”-Of the stories, this is the most realistic. Instead of Dark Fantasy or Supernatural Horror, this is more like a Psychological Thriller. It features an infamous real life serial killer. The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer who murdered mostly Italian immigrants or Italian-American men from 1918-1919. Most notably, a letter allegedly from The Axeman said that he would not kill anyone on a certain night in homes where jazz played. Musicians played in hundreds of homes that night. The Axeman was never identified and no arrests were made.

Vincent and his friends, Mikey and Dupree are startled one night by the sound of a scream and a dark mysterious figure hastily leaving a building with an ax in hand. They suspect that he might be the Axeman. The trio become obsessed with the case and go to extreme lengths to stop the Axeman's reign of terror.

This story’s tone and atmosphere are on point. The Axeman is certainly human but he carries a demonic aura. He haunts Vincent's dreams and is described more of as an otherworldly presence than an actual human being. He invites the possibility that he might not be human at least in this version. But the fact that he is, somehow makes him even more chilling. He has a human way of planning and analyzing how to commit the murders without getting caught and an inhuman desire to hack a human body to pieces.

There are some interesting twists to the story. Since it is set in New Orleans, we get motifs like voodoo and jazz. Voodoo presents the only supernatural link in the story and even that might just be within the minds of those who believe in it. It also makes sense that in absence of any physical legal help to stop the Axeman, the boys would turn to more esoteric means. Voodoo is a large part of New Orleans life but it is also held in suspicion by non-practitioners. There is something supernatural and eerie about it, the type of thing that would draw someone like the Axeman. The boys are using one unusual potentially dark path to capture one unusual dark person. 

Jazz music also plays a large part most prominently practiced by Vincent's brother, Peter. It not only plays into the physical location but the time period as well. Jazz is improvisation mixed with deep emotion like pain, anger, sadness, and love. While popular, it was also controversial and considered an outsider’s choice of music like rock or rap would be later. The kind of music someone who stands on the outside fringes of society would listen to.

It's also worth noting that Peter is a WWI veteran. This is the time of the Lost Generation, when soldiers returned home with deep trauma. Where flappers and college kids decided to live freely without a care. It was a time where people were aware that life could end at any moment, so might as well grab all that you can. This deep emotion is played by someone who saw death up close and killed people because his government told him to. Maybe Peter feels a disturbing connection to the Axeman, an understanding about what it's like to live on the outside fringe, with longing and emotions that he can't express openly, and living with a violent and bloody past. 

These stories deliver scares to the characters and the Reader making their sleep a truly unpleasant one.

Lit List Short Reviews Imagine, A Kinder Gentler Hitler: An Utter Fantasy by Rob Santana; Druidess: Gates of Eden by Theophilus Monroe

 Lit List Short Reviews Imagine, A Kinder Gentler Hitler: An Utter Fantasy by Rob Santana; Druidess: Gates of Eden by Theophilus Monroe

Imagine, A Kinder Gentler Hitler: An Utter Fantasy by Rob Santana

Spoilers: If you have read books by Rob Santana, you should know to expect the unexpected. An Academy Awards ceremony would be interrupted by the onstage public suicide of the Best Actress winner, like in his book, The Oscar Goes To. (Her ghost is laughing at Will Smith and Chris Rock and  calling them wusses.) An abandoned baby in a dumpster would lead to conflicts involving racism, drug addiction, poverty, and child trafficking, like in Little Blue Eyes. Yes, Santana knows how to make something innocent and disturbing exist side by side.

So it probably wouldn't be too weird for Santana to write an Alternate History or even that it would feature Adolf Hitler. Alternate Histories starring Adolf Hitler are actually quite common, such as if What If The Nazis won WWII, What if Britain and/or The U.S. were led by supporters of the German dictator. Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America, and Phillip K. Dick's The Man in High Castle are good examples of such works.

 One of the more haunting versions is the short story, "Painted Bridges" by Barbara Delaplace in which Hitler remained a painter but still retained his Antisemitism, insanity, and ability to control others, but through his art not his oration. 

So Alternate Hitler is not that unusual especially for an author with a style like Santana's to write. But what this author does to give his work that distinct Santana touch is to turn his version into a picture book!

Yes, you read that right. Santana writes an Alternate History with Adolf Hitler as a nice guy in the form of a picture book. It is strange. It's questionable. It leaves a lot of things open ended. It is completely insane, but the right kind of insane. It's impossible to look away from it. It's something that shouldn't work, but somehow it does.

The illustrations are bright collage style, that border on trippiness. I mean the cover shows Hitler with wings. It looks like something out of Terry Gilliam's animated sequences from Monty Python. It's like playing into someone's fever dream which makes sense since the initial idea does exactly that.

There are some interesting possibilities that are changed because of Hitler's personality shift from brutal Antisemitic dictator and personification of evil to nice guy. For one thing, the post-WWI depression in which Hitler and the Nazi Party used to scapegoat Communists and Jews ends prematurely by the kinder gentler version of Hitler introducing television and the Autobahn early. Hitler has a nice friendly phone chat with Roosevelt which results in them becoming allies and defending each other against their eventual enemies, Russia and Japan.

 In fact the German and American leader's phone conversation is amusing in and of itself. It seems to come out of Dr. Strangelove ("Hi, Adolf, yes I'm fine. You're fine. It's great that we're both fine, Adolf.") 

Tongue is planted firmly in cheek with this alternate scenario and if you get past the weirdness, it's kind of a strange humorous short read. 

This book opens up possibilities about how different the world could be if one slight change were made. However, because this version takes the form of a picture book, it only introduced the original germ or spark of this alternate scenario. Yes, Hitler is a nice guy. His Antisemitism has vanished. The Nazi Party isn't united by his rhetoric and the Holocaust doesn't happen. That's good news, but there are others concerns that this book's short form doesn't allow Santana to bring to surface.

Antisemitism did not begin and end with Hitler. It existed centuries before he was even born. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1919) was a deplorable book of conspiracy theories that accused the Jewish people of being a secret cabal with intentions on ruling the world. Many read it and believed it. Henry Ford reportedly kept a copy by his bedside. There's more than a possibility that if Hitler hadn't had that hatred ingrained in him and the power to speak about it, someone else may have. For example, Josef Goebbels, his Minister of Propaganda, knew how to stretch the truth to fit his agenda. 

This book also still portrays Stalin as being a dictator and he had no conscience or qualms about imprisoning or executing enemies. If Hitler hadn't orchestrated the Holocaust, would he? He was certainly responsible for a lot of deaths. Maybe millions more would be on his hands. In fact, since the Nazis also initially targeted Communists as well as Jews, wouldn't making the Russians and Germans sworn enemies but on opposite sides not have changed things very much?

Speaking of Stalin, there are post-World War II questions to ask. Would the Cold War have begun sooner? In fact, if Hitler didn't commit suicide in this timeline would he have lived to see Germany separated? How would Nice Guy Alternate Hitler have handled the Soviet Union in subsequent years? Remember, the Nazis targeted Communists as well as Jews. They would certainly have no reason to ally with them and their scientists would have no reason to flee Nazi Germany and seek asylum in the U.S. If so, how terrifying is the prospect that two European countries fairly close together both have the ability to make nuclear weapons and are sworn enemies? The United States may not have become a superpower unless Germany shared that science but Europe would have a lot deadlier possibilities. 

What about the Middle East? Would Israel still be allied with the United States? Heck, would it even exist as a nation? How would the issues within those countries have changed or been altered?

These are all ideas that the frame of a picture book can't cover by itself. Santana just presents the original idea, but perhaps he could expand upon it in a novel or a series.

This is a strange book with a completely strange concept. But it definitely is humorous and might ask some intriguing questions.

 

Druidess: Gates of Eden by Theophilus Monroe

Spoilers: I must admit while reading the first chapters of Theophilus Monroe's Druidess: Gates of Eden, I had reservations and misgivings. When the first major conflict involves a young white Irish American woman who is descended from a long line of druids against the reincarnation of an African American former slave woman who practices voodoo in what appears to be a battle of good vs. evil, I admit that my first thought was, "Uh oh." I am glad my first impressions weren't warranted and that I stuck with it. Instead, what I found is a well written character driven fantasy in which different forms of cultural magic are practiced and given equal time and respect.

Joni Campbell is awakened by Isabella, the ghost of of a former slave, who needs her to help her fight Messalina, her older sister who in life made a pact with Baron Samedi, a voodoo loa (or spirit) to help her seek vengeance against her former masters and their descendants. This is important to Joni, who is not only the descendant of one of the sisters' former masters, but her mother and father's family lines come from powerful Irish druids. 

Joni barely has time to process this before Messalina arrives packing heat uh magic and puts Joni's mother in the hospital. So Joni, Isabella, and their new friend, Roger Thundershield, a Choctaw whose family has a historical connection with the Campbells, use their diverse tremendous powers to face Messalina and Samedi.

This is a very smart short novel with two memorable lead characters. 

Joni is a refreshing protagonist in the "Magical Girl" Fantasy Subgenre. She doesn't go through the obligatory "I just want to be normal" whine. It helps that her interest in her family history and reading her ancestor's journal means that she already knows who Isabella is after she introduces herself. Not to mention she already has a belief in the supernatural as evidenced by her comfortable ease with communicating with Isabella's ghost and her acceptance of her family's magical legacy. 

Of course, there are some more dramatic shocking things that throw a curve in her feelings towards her ancestors. They shake her and force her to see another darker more sinister side within her family that she has turned a blind eye towards but now must acknowledge.

However, Joni is determined to help others, especially when people around her are getting hurt. Joni recognizes that she is the heir to an important legacy and she owns it. She even aspires to improve upon the grave wrongs that her ancestors did.

On the other side is Messalina. Thankfully, Monroe makes her just as interesting a character as Joni. Sometimes, the Reader's sympathies shift towards her. She is driven by the rage of having been born and raised a slave. She was molested by a former master and even though the Campbells were kind to the sisters, Messalina has already been severely damaged so she couldn't trust them. (After all, how kind can a person be if they still profit from the buying and selling of human beings?)

 She is fueled by even more hatred at the racism she still sees around her in modern day. One can understand her perspective. However, like many good antagonists, she takes her anger a step too far and attacks innocent people. The truth is, all she wanted was freedom. However, in trying to obtain that she became bonded to another master who was more volatile and crueler than any human one.

There are other characters that are interesting as well. Isabella is wise beyond her youthful appearance and is a great guide to help Joni. Roger also follows his own family lineage and remains loyal towards Joni to the point where he staunchly refuses to give her up when he is being tortured. 

There are some very magical creatures that help and hinder these young people. Joni has a few conversations with some of the Celtic gods that offer suggestions and allow her to find things out for himself. Roger has a powerful relative who packs a surprising enchanting punch. Even Baton Samedi, who is shameless in devouring souls and using Messalina in furthering his agenda of getting more souls, has moments of charm and charisma. A passage where Messalina and Samedi are arguing in a hospital makes them seem more like a comedy team than a malicious duo bent on destroying souls and getting revenge.

Another compelling aspect to the book is how the various cultural magics are written. The book speaks of Celtic, Native American, and Haitian American lore. It's fascinating how these  magical practices bump into each other and how they are looked at by those who observe them. It shows that magic can wear many faces and can change through the eyes of the person observing it. For example, while one might assume that Voodoo is seen as an evil practice, this book shows that's not necessarily true. Isabella herself practices some aspects to it and another character shows a talent towards it. It's more of when a character is bent on hatred and destruction, they are going to attract a spirit who may not have their best interest in mind. 

The Celtic magic practiced by Joni may be seen as good in the book, but members of her family have used it for less altruistic reasons. They followed rigid restrictions to the letter without weighing the emotional consequences. Their hands certainly weren't clean when it came to using their rituals and magic for selfish ends either.

This book shows that no matter the form, magic itself is not evil. However, some using it might have more hateful or selfish intentions that could be turned towards evil purposes.

Druidess appears to be part of several different series written by Monroe as a shared universe. It definitely leaves some things open ended and reveals some other new characters that show magical aptitude. Druidess is definitely a great start.

New Book Alert: Voodoo Warning by R.E. Wood; Thriller About Plane Crashes and Zombies Is Reminiscent of 1970’s Films

New Book Alert: Voodoo Warning by R.E. Wood; Thriller About Plane Crashes and Zombies Is Reminiscent of 1970’s Films





By Julie Sara Porter


Bookworm Reviews





Spoilers: R.E. Wood’s horror novel, Voodoo Warning is reminiscent of those old disaster and horror films from the 1970’s. It doesn't have much in the way of deep characterization or themes beyond mere survival. But it makes up for that in genuine suspense, graphic description, and the kind of thrills that you expect from this kind of book.

The book begins on a passenger airplane in the 1970’s. It has many of the standard characters you expect in such a story: the stalwart Colonel with his fed-up wife, the doctor who is conveniently on board in case they need a medical emergency, the arguing couple and the hippy couple (this is the ‘70’s), and the hero caught in a love triangle between an innocent naive college student and a sharp tongue experienced school teacher, and of course the crew: the gorgeous flight attendant, the handsome pilot, and the loyal co-pilot. The characters are pretty flat. They are more like plot devices for the thrills and horrors to happen to them rather than people who are suffering because scary horrible and things are happening to them.


This is one of those books where the plane no sooner takes off than you know it's going to crash.

And crash it does. It crashes in the uncharted areas of Peru. The first couple of chapters make the Reader think this is going to be a survival story somewhere between Lord of the Flies and The Poseidon Adventure in which the survivors pull together and


find a way out becoming either closer because of the journey or turning on each other brutally. Unfortunately, the disappearing corpses (not to mention) the book's title) lead the book into horror-zombie territory.

There are genuine chapters that produce chills particularly when the characters enter a creepy mansion. They are being stalked by a sinister mambo and his bloodthirsty tribe. Yes, uncomfortable stereotyping is present in this novel too. Voodoo practitioners are the antagonists here. Though one character does the Readers a favor by differentiating the Voodoo practiced in this book from the Voodoo practiced in Haiti and New Orleans. However, most of the book features passages this side of Voodoo presented in Hollywood movies. The novel pays as much attention to real life spiritual paths as it does to its characters.

But that's not what is to be looked for or found in this book. Reality and characterization take a back seat to chills and scares. Wood delivers on those. Does he ever.
Many creepy moments occur when the characters are caught inside the mansion with the Mambo outside and they fall prey to creatures floating in and out of the shadows, chanting whispering among the trees, and a deep voice warning them to get out.


Not to mention that many of the characters are equipped with their own personal emotional baggage that already puts them on the edge. Couples fight. Lisa, the naive student has jealous eyes for Mary, the schoolteacher when she and Jim, the hero flirt with each other. Some characters are mourning the deaths of the other crew and passengers.
The atmosphere is scary enough when the creatures are outside allowing the supernatural creatures to creep in slowly with the emotional tension. When the Mambo unleashes his powerful attacks on the survivors, it is graphic and bloody, but almost not as scary as the tension that preceded it.


When the survivors are taken out one by one and some characters are witness to the rituals, it is everything you expect from a horror novel. There is blood here and mutilations there and a native tells the plane crash survivors how his mother died in a ritual when he was young. The chapters with the Voodoo tribe should produce some chilling mental pictures and nightmares.


However, for genuine fear, the build up is scarier than the execution. Sometimes, the creatures in the shadows are more terrifying when they are subtle and left to the imagination than when they are present in all of their gory glory.

Voodoo Warning is an exciting novel even if it's kind of predictable including the end which is one of the most clichéd obvious endings in the genre. But if you want a genuine scare for Halloween, this is a good suggestion for that. However, R.E. Wood wrote novels that are scarier and are better written making them more memorable as well as scarier.

Weekly Reader: Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Leveau by Martha Ward; The Voodoo Queens Come To Colorful Life In This Engaging Enchanting Biography

Weekly Reader: Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Leveau by Martha Ward; The Voodoo Queens Come To Colorful Life In This Engaging Enchanting Biography

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: In New Orleans, the name Marie Leveau is a familiar one. In her lifetime, she was considered “The Voodoo Queen”, a priestess who used her connections to Voodoo to help friends and curse enemies. There are plenty of Voodoo shops dedicated to her memory and her grave in the St. Louis Cemetery is often decorated with beads, rum, and other gifts from people who wish to bestow good fortune upon friends or ill luck upon enemies. Many have reported encounters with what could be her ghost. (including this Reader who had a Tarot reading from a very strange woman who disappeared right after.) In her book, Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Leveau, Martha Ward, University Research Professor of Anthropology, Urban Studies, and Women's Studies at the University of New Orleans captures the colorful and controversial spirit of Leveau, showing us a woman and a religion that have both been misunderstood and giving us a book that is both an engaging and effective way in explaining who Leveau was and what Voodoo was really all about. Many misconceptions that people have about Leveau and Voodoo are challenged by Ward’s excellent research and writing that helps the Reader understand Leveau and a religion that has been demonized by Hollywood films and zombie culture.




One of the misconceptions that Ward dispelled right away was that Marie Leveau was only one woman. Actually, she was two: a mother and daughter, Marie the First Leveau Paris Glapion (1801-1881) and Marie the Second Eucharist Heloise Leveau Glapion (1827-1875?). Both women studied Voodoo and developed reputations within their communities as leaders in both the sociopolitical and religious structures.




Much of the book focuses on the Leveaus’ involvement as community leaders as well as priestesses. New Orleans Voodoo, as described by Ward, appears to be a spiritual practice that thrives on communal involvement. The Laveaus often led ceremonial dances and meetings in which the guests sang songs, danced, and ate gumbo while appealing to “La Grand Zombi” (or the Great Spirit.). Their get-togethers were also filled with magic as people appealed to the Leveaus to aid them in obtaining money to repay debts or to curse someone who wronged them. Many of the passages describe the give-and-take process as people who believed in Voodoo offered trinkets, food, and other items to the Leveaus in exchange for their aid in casting spells and offering gris-gris (amulets and other magical talismans that offer protection for the users.).




Voodoo is explored brilliantly in this book by bringing it down to its historic roots. Brought by enslaved people from West Africa to America, Voodoo has its roots in Catholicism as its practitioners communicate with Saints and participate in Catholic rites and rituals as well as Shamanism in which the religious figures have a close connection to the Spirit World and are bridges between the Spirits and the Physical World. Those who follow Voodoo also invoke ancestors as well as spirits who protect them from harm.

The book also is quick to show the differences that New Orleans Voodoo has compared to others such as the more well-known branch, Haitian Voodoo. The emphasis on community is much stronger in the New Orleans branch as Voodoo is often used as a means to bring people together and to challenge the sociopolitical structure around its users.(This was particularly important as many of the practitioners of Voodoo in the Leveaus’ day were often escaped slaves, freed blacks who purchased their freedom, and white women who recognized the following as one that offered them power.)

Also there is a strong female-oriented presence within the New Orleans version as many of the rituals and meetings are headed by women such as the Leveaus. The spiritual training is often passed down from mother to daughter (as between Marie the First to Marie the Second and possibly how the First learned from her mother.) though the training can be between a man and a woman (as one of Leveau's descendants known as “Luke Turner” did to author, Zora Neale Hurston). The female leaders were called Voodoo Queens.

While Voodoo does involve spells from people seeking revenge against hated enemies is present, Voodoo is not the Satanic Zombie-creating religion many perceive. Instead it is a vibrant spiritual practice which involves a deep sense of community and a personal connection with Spirits.




Besides using Voodoo, the Leveaus were also involved in aiding the people around them on more physical levels. Marie the First often helped nurse the sick during the Yellow Fever epidemics and she and her husband also used some clever legal means to buy slaves with the intent of freeing them from bondage.




Marie the Second was just as committed to helping the people around her as her mother. She formed friendships with powerful judges, attorneys, and city government employees. She also used both her magic and allegiances to aid others such as protecting women who were abused by their husbands or obtaining defense for people who had been wrongfully convicted.




The book also focuses on the Leveaus’ complicated lives as Creoles and their romances with men who were considered unsuitable by society's standards. The Leveaus, like many residents of Louisiana, were Creoles, people who had their origins from various places such as France, Spain, and the West Indies. In Marie the First's case she also had ancestry from Africa as well as Europe. Her mother's family came from Central Africa and her father may have been white. Because no portraits or photographs exist of the Leveaus in their lifetimes, no one had a definite idea of their physical appearances. Many eyewitnesses described them as “tall and extremely dark-skinned” or “small and so fair-skinned that they could pass for white.” Their appearances were almost a mirror of New Orleans society and the strange dynamic that the city had among the races which suggested more inclusion and acceptance but still as a Southern state in pre-Civil War America participated in the institution of slavery and later in segregation.




Even the romances between the Maries and the men in their lives were dictated by the standards at the time. Many accounts in Marie the First's lifetime described her husband, Christophe Glapion as a “Free Man of Color,” a description that couldn't be further from the truth (though Ward wrote that many biographers even to this day report this as fact. Even Leveau's younger daughter, Philomene, described him as such.). Actually, he was a white man who declared himself a free light-skinned black man so he could marry Leveau. Despite the anti-miscegenation laws, Leveau and Glapion married, had five children though only two daughters, Marie the Second and Philomene survived to adulthood, and bought a house on St. Anne St.

Marie the Second also had a disadvantageous union. She fell in love with Pierre Crocker, a married man who already had an official mistress (therefore was not permitted to legally have another). Despite this, Marie the Second had five children by Crocker and a longtime relationship with him. The romances between the Leveaus and the men in their lives showed the hypocrisy of New Orleans society which considered itself more free-spirited and liberal than the rest of the U.S.’s more rigid laws, but only up to a certain point. They had definite opinions about racial mixing and that relationships outside of marriage could only be tolerated so far.




Ward’s book also reveals the decline of the Leveaus’ influence but not by magical or spiritual means, but by something that Ward described as “a bird that was more powerful:” Jim Crow. The Jim Crow Segregation laws, put to a stop the Leveaus’ interracial get-togethers and caused their influence in New Orleans society to decline. They never recovered even after Marie the Second disappeared from the public eye in 1873 and may have died in 1875 (though no one knows what actually happened to her) and Marie the First died of natural causes in 1881. However, they got the last laugh as Voodoo and their legacy are still a part of the fabric in New Orleans history and current society.




Voodoo Queens: The Spirited Lives of Marie Leveau, is a brilliantly written and well-researched book that brings the two women to life in a biography that humanizes both them and their religion.