Reviews with content warning for Racism - Conjure Women

This book was really good but it can be slow to start. Especially since each chapter alters between past and present it can be frustrating when a chapter ends on a cliffhanger only to know you won't get it resolved immediately. It also takes a while for all the pieces to come together but when they do it's really satisfying and makes a lot of sense. The medical content is also really well done, I looked up if the author has a medical background and it doesn't seem like it, so she did her research and did an awesome job, bc as a healing women Rue wouldn't know the modern names of diseases but the way she describes them you always know what she's talking about.

I would really recommend this book but do check the trigger warnings, if some topics are an issue for you.

(Just my soapbox but I think this book is very firmly magical realism, not fantasy, and honestly that a book can't be both in the fantasy and magical realism genres, they both have magic but the fundamentals contradict one another.)

Content Warnings

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Conjure Women by Afia Atakora is a much newer book that unfolds in two timelines and tells the story of Rue and her mother May Belle, before, during and after the Civil War. Much of the story is centred on the community turning on Rue when she delivers a baby that people find unnerving and is later unable to cure children who fall ill. Another strand centres on the complicated relationship between Rue and the plantation owner’s daughter, Varina. It’s a very female centred story that examines motherhood, explores the intersection of gender and race, and looks at the concept of privilege and freedom within the plantation system and its aftermath. The writing was powerful and the structure, especially the way the story moved back and forward in time, really held my attention. The struggles and uncertainties of the immediate post-slavery era for Blacks are clearly portrayed. I was interested to learn that this novel is at least partly based on first accounts gathered by the WPA in the 1930s.

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sneema's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I mean.... a book about hoodoo, plant medicine, black midwifery traditions, and community dynamics under devastating circumstances??? Yeah this was for me!!!!!

Content Warnings

wellreadjill_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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xenvirtue's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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carolinesterr's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.75

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mvrcellv's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

Rep: Black female MC, Black/biracial male love interest, Black and biracial supporting cast.

CWs: Abortion, alcohol consumption, alcoholism, blood, death/death of parent, domestic abuse, fire, infidelity, injury/injury detail, medical content, miscarriage/stillbirth, misogyny, murder, pregnancy, racial slurs, racism, rape, consensual sexual content, slavery, violence, war. Moderate: gore, torture, lynching.

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