Reviews with content warning for Murder - Root Magic

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Root Magic by Eden Royce

10 reviews

kristinajean's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Root Magic is great! I liked the two siblings and the whole cast of characters. The history that was incorporated into the story was fantastic and done naturally. I appreciated this one and will look forward to reading something else from this author in the future. Some really cool imagery and a world that I won't soon forget.

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jojo_'s review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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vasha's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I needed something immersive, and this story set in the 1963 Sea Islands was just the thing. I may've been briefly distracted by a few didactic moments, but after all, to the narrator, 11-year-old Jezebel Turner, learning about her ancestral traditions is important: a connection to her departed grandmother, transmitted by her beloved uncle, and necessary for her emotional survival through stressful times. The (brief) lectures are scattered among a whirlwind of events (cool to read about, tough to live through) and grounded in an excellent family. Hours after finishing the book I still feel like I'm living with Jez and her brother, mother, and uncle.

And, of course, it's magic. In learning root work, you might say Jez is attending magical school -- a serious school with high stakes. She also attends regular school, where the other girls sneer at her for the backwardness of belonging to a family of witch doctors (her uncle says the proper term is root worker, but he doesn't mind at all being called a witch doctor). One strand of the story is launched when Jez works some magic to try to get a friend. As if this wasn't stressful enough, on top of her grandmother's death, the lingering uncertainty of her father's disappearance a few years before, and the feeling that she's growing apart from her twin brother Jay, she has to cope with supernatural creatures that want to feed off her magic and, worse, the local policeman, Deputy Collins, who's been carrying on a program of harassment and violence against any Black people said to be doing root work. Although Collins is satisfactorily dealt with (not before leaving behind traumatic damage) we never learn why he's acting as he is. But, as another Black character rightly put it in a book I read earlier this year, "Who knows why white people do anything?" Nothing obliges Collins to explain himself. The supernatural beings turn out to be more approachable and understandable than he is. Nonetheless, the times are full of hope for an improvement in racial relations, with President Kennedy insisting on integration and, locally, the arrival of a reform-minded sheriff.

There's so much to like in this book: not just the "chills and thrills" but the wonderful characters (Jez's mother is especially excellent), the sights, sounds and smells of the farm and the tidal marsh, and Jez's description of the feeling of being supported by her community and her ancestors, especially in the moving final chapter.

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f18's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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linesiunderline's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a book that left me immediately wanting to talk about it with others! Good thing I was reading it for a Middle Grade bookclub.

It was my first time reading Royce’s work and I am now very motivated to seek out more.

The author achieved so much in this spooky story:
- a sensitive, complex sibling relationship
- rich introduction to Gullah Geechee culture, and the history and practice of root magic
- downright creepy (venturing into scary) stuff, very vividly written
- strong sense of place: the marsh comes all the way to life due to the sensory style of the writing, you can see it, hear it, smell it
- a memorable, loving family at the centre of it all

Howevers:
- really the only aspect of this that didn’t work for me was the slow start, for the first quarter I felt like there wasn’t enough tension
- while I actually ended up finding the VERY scary climactic moment to be memorable and so well done, it was graphic and some kids might be quite frightened (nightmare territory for some I’ll bet)

I will definitely keep reading more Middle Grade titles by Royce. This was rich and layered and finely imagined.

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katelindsay's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Root Magic has been all over the bookish Youtube community. As I’m not a big reader of middle grade books, I didn’t feel the inclination to read this until my library put it on a list of recommended books. That was the catalyst I needed to pick up this book and I’m so glad I did.

Set in 1960’s South Carolina, Root Magic tells the story of a Gullah-Geechee family dealing with loss, racism, and generational folk magic. After the death of their grandmother, twins Jezebel and Jay’s uncle agrees to teach them rootwork, an African American folk magic. Being a family of rootworkers makes the Turners a target for harassment from the police and members of the community. Even other African Americans are prejudiced against rootworkers; Jezebel is frequently bullied by girls in her class.

Eden Royce wrote a magical novel of a young girl growing up and realizing she is more powerful than she knew. Faced with evil both human and supernatural, Jezebel needs more than powers and potions to protect herself and her family. She needs to use her innate abilities. A wonderful fantasy novel, I’d recommend this novel for both children and adults.

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2treads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Stunning in the richness of culture, practices, and family it depicts with a simplicity that draws from a well of ancestry and stirs memories in this reader of similar wonders and rituals that are shared and the connections that can be made even to those that differ.

Jez and Jay have to navigate a time that is roiling with changes that may usher in opportunities for them but at a cost. The atmosphere churns with emotion and reality as our characters exist in a time and place where they can so easily be violated and harmed, yet the palpablity of their lives vibrates on every page.

Whether it is from the loss of loved ones, the harassment by law enforcement or the recognition of a history that is sustained and nurtured through rootwork and language. Fostering a love for and appreciation of our histories and culture is the foundation from which our children and us will be able to build up our self-love and truly understand what magic we hope and are.

Root Magic is another stellar addition to the beauty of a canon made up of writers who are members of a community and have intimate experiences which only they can relate in a voice that immerses the reader in their world. It is the result of a voice weaving a story that is inherently theirs.

Growing up we were exposed to the healing power of herbs and roots, to the ever present connectivity between spirits and the living (our mother has told us of encounters with siblings, a nephew, and the infamous ol' higue). Reading about the Gullah Geechee and their practices has just imprinted upon us, even more, the depth of the bonds we share as we strive to keep what our ancestors fought to keep, centuries later.

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adoras's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow. I am so impressed with this novel. It has such a beautiful sense of time and place, set in South Carolina in 1963, and has so many little details that really put me in the characters' shoes, particularly talk about language and a lot of descriptions of food. The world building is fantastic, especially in the natural way we learn about magic (root work) as Jezebel and Jay learn about it. Also, for a middle grade novel, it's genuinely creepy and upsetting and scary at points. There were parts where I really felt chilled or worried for the characters' safety. I'm bumping this up to 4.5 stars because of how well it stuck the landing. While I find that many fantasy and/or middle grade books have a great set-up, this had a solid set up and then kept ramping up, really delivering in the third act.

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allison_reads's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ugh this is such a sweet book. I know it's marketed towards children but, it didn't feel like a children's book at all! It's whimsical and fantastical while touching on very real issues that African-American's faced during the Civil Rights Movement in the US. I would recommend anyway read this novel!

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