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careinthelibrary's review against another edition
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.
Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Racism, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Murder
vasha's review against another edition
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.
Graphic: Police brutality, Grief, Bullying, Violence, and Racism
Moderate: Murder, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery, Animal cruelty, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Animal death
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