A review by booksteabedby7
Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

It took me about 6 months to finish this book, which likely colours my opinions of it. Any book involving voodoo or hoodoo in New Orleans will make its way onto my shelf. I really loved the story and the ideas in this work. However, so much of it was on the nose, straight narrative and there wasn’t a whole lot of mystery to it. I almost felt that I was reading a textbook in the way things were described. But I want to again emphasise the IDEAS were stellar and I really loved them. There was one unforeseen twist at about 75% through, but it wasn’t enough for me. Also, this was a novel where is couldn’t understand many of the characters’ motivations. Even with mitigating factors and past traumas, SURELY you would tell future generations about a deadly family curse?! This was a case of me being frustrated because so much could have been resolved by people just acting like rational adults and speaking the truth. Sometimes that can’t happen, but I didn’t buy into any of the reasons trying to frame such behaviour as impossible within this story. Still, the author is on my radar and I’ll likely check out her later works. I just think the style can use a little finessing.