Conjure Women A Novel

I really wish I had liked this book more. It just felt very stagnant and somewhat confusing at times. The story didn’t progress very much. Still, a good read.

I was so excited to receive an advanced reader copy of Conjure Women. The characters and the landscape are fleshed out with such detail that you feel sure they must be real - that this must be a work of historical fact not fiction. Reading this book felt like being inside of an intricate labyrinth. I would think I knew where the story was headed and then it would take a turn I hadn’t been anticipating, or bring me back to the beginning, or what I thought was a resolution of some kind would bring me up on a dead end. I wasn’t always sure where the story was taking me, but it was a beautiful journey.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. ------------------------------- Varina...I never saw you coming. Not any of the times that you came across the storyline. Rue, you deserved so much more from these people who you've spent your whole life protecting and caring for alongside a mother who was revered for it. Miss May Belle, you deserved a better end than the one you got. You gave everything to that family and to those people and, in the end, it was just you and your daughter suffering through the worst moments of your life, ------------------------------ What I expected: a story about women surviving in a time of uncertainty, in a time where men were the sole determiner of women's bodies and their futures, in a time where blackness was enough for you to be owned. What I got: black women carving their own space in a world that didn't accept their methods, a life entangled with that of the white daughter of their master, blooming hope that comes with newfound freedom, and damning secrets that could change life as they know it (both before and after the War). You don't fully get where this is going until it gets there. You think it's about being a 'witch' when your people are finding 'civilized religion', but it's not. You think it's about a little boy, born different, signalling bad omens for your community, but it's not. You think it's about Rue finding happiness after not knowing what that really meant, but it's not. You think it's about a secret held before Wartime that evolves into an equally dangerous secret after the War, but it's not. It's about a life lived out loud when living was something you had to work towards rather than something you expected just in being alive. It's about being that solid constant even when you aren't wanted anymore because you realize that you're still needed. It's realizing that this life that you signed up for is far bigger than you in that one moment, far bigger than your personal hurts and comforts. It's about characters that are flawed, in a system that is flawed, trying to find a way to stay true to themselves even when doing so means leaving yourself open to even more hurt. TL;DR: Read this if you want to follow flawed characters that are trying to live their lives in a dual timeline, mostly single POV narrative.

As I went, I wasn’t sure why this book was taking me so very, very long to read, but now that I’ve finished it, I realize it’s because I didn’t want this story to end. What a marvelous work of literary art! An incredible, sweeping story with prose so rich you could practically experience it with all five senses. At times I got lost and found the back-and-forth timelines confusing (and there is so much you must read between the lines here) but overall I enjoyed Atakora’s writing immensely and feel grateful to have happened upon this read. Heartwarming and heartbreaking, all at once. I almost want to read it again just to pick up on everything I probably missed the first time around... So much hiding in plain sight that is subtly revealed (if you’re looking) as the book progresses. And amazingly well researched. Complex and raw and gorgeous. Loved this book!

** spoiler alert ** No. This book had so much potential and I was hoping to read of how magic and conjure brought strength to a family in the hardest of times. No. It was slow moving with way too many moving parts, loose ends, and a vague ending. I was turning pages to find out the magic behind Bean and his connection with May Belle or Rue. I was turning pages to find some deeper reason that Varina was still tied to this land. Maybe it is a really great book but it just went way over my head. I’m let down.

Half of this book I listened to and half of this book I read. I think it’s the type of story where you need to lay eyes on the words. Rue and her mother, our conjure women, are smart and resilient women who have a way of feeling what’s to come. They make mistakes and they commit sins, but what made me love this book is that I understood why they made those decisions. I know why Rue lies. I know why her mother is harsh. Halfway through the book I thought I had the plot pinned down, only to find out it was only one layer of the story. This is a brilliant and beautiful story of women trying to survive in a world where men are in charge and superstition reins. Highly recommend.