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A review by lydiahephzibah
Music and Malice in Hurricane Town by Alex Bell
3.0
I was drawn to this book by its cover and I was sold when I read that it was a fantasy set in New Orleans, but it didn't live up to its potential. It felt like a very whitewashed idea of dark magic in New Orleans (the two majorly underutilised black characters are described as "black as coal" and "chocolate coloured" and are largely forgotten for a lot of the book - Jude's supposed best friend only appears in a couple of scenes).
The writing felt a bit lazy - it was quite a simplistic fantasy, and some elements were just lifted from history and renamed. The character of Violetta Majstro, a "witch" who tortured and experimented on slaves, is clearly a lazy fictionalisation of Madame LaLaurie.
I just felt that I wanted more from this book. New Orleans is such a rich setting, and the Creole culture and voodoo is such a fascinating subject with a ton of potential for amazing literature, but this wasn't it.
The writing felt a bit lazy - it was quite a simplistic fantasy, and some elements were just lifted from history and renamed. The character of Violetta Majstro, a "witch" who tortured and experimented on slaves, is clearly a lazy fictionalisation of Madame LaLaurie.
I just felt that I wanted more from this book. New Orleans is such a rich setting, and the Creole culture and voodoo is such a fascinating subject with a ton of potential for amazing literature, but this wasn't it.