Conjure Women - Afia Atakora

This book held me in its grasp from the first page and it wouldn’t let go - nor was I interested in letting it go. The plot, the characters, the way the book is made up of past and present: everything works so perfectly, all woven together in Afia Atakora’s beautiful, beautiful writing.

Conjure Women is the story of pre and post Civil War South, during slavery and after abolition, and it shares the stories of Miss May Belle and her daughter Rue, healing women born into slavery, surviving into freedom, and Miss Varina, the mistress of the plantation where they all reside(d). It’s the story of family, of pain, of traditions, and superstitions, of secrets, and of love, all told through the voices of women. 

I loved Rue. She reluctantly carries on her mother’s legacy of healing and midwifery, unsure of her own powers or even if she wants to have powers. She’s flawed, as any human is, and takes action in ways that are not always easy to understand (I personally did), but in my opinion she was perfectly created, a character who came alive for me, and one that I will not forget. I had a lot of sympathy for Miss May Belle, my heart broke for her and the choices she had to make, and also some for Miss Varina, a girl born into her own golden restraints, but neither drew me in as much as Rue did. 

I also loved how the book is written, alternating between times and voices, allowing the reader to slowly understand the entire story, all the way up until the very last pages. The structure, along with the wonderful characters, made the book completely unputdownable.

All in all Conjure Women is a beautifully built and magnificently told story of slavery in the south, of survival, of tremendous pain and heartbreak, and of the love that continued despite the pain. 

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this beautiful, heartbreaking novel in return for an honest review. Thanks to Afia Atakora for this beautiful first novel, and all of the hard work that it must have taken to birth it.