Conjure Women: A Novel Kindle Edition

This book is definitely in the running for my favorite book of the year, hell I think it IS my favorite book of the year. Definite 5/5 from me.Thank you to Netgalley for hooking me up with an ARC of this great novel, that I don't know I would have heard of otherwise.'Conjure Women' follows Rue throughout her childhood and adulthood, seeing her mother being a healer and her own later attempts at trying to be the new healer. Of course nothing is easy and plot happens.There are a few chapters that are told from her mother's perspective, but they are few in number. The chapters do alternate with one in the past and one in the 'present' of Post-Civil War. The past sections do slowly catch up to the 'present' and the closer it gets the more you're able to see just how things got this way. Rue feels like she is losing the ability to work miracles and there is outside pressure that might make everyone lose their new homes once again.This is more literary than fantasy, and while magic does exist in this book I think it definitely swings more towards the folk magic direction than what most people think of when they think of magic. It didn't affect my rating, but I feel like I should clarify that for people looking at reviews.Our MC, Rue, is delightfully complex and she feels like a real person put into page form. Her relationships both in her childhood and adulthood feel the same. They all have ups and downs, and both feel like they could be part of a real relationship. The timeline of events also makes sense and marches at such a pace that I never found myself confused about the way things happened, besides when it was intentional for you to be a bit lost. (Mostly when it comes to reveals that happen in the second half)The book is plotted so well that the twists just keep getting revealed and you're slowly piecing together the story or what happened, and what is going to happen after. The only dull moment might be towards the beginning, but I wouldn't even count that as slow. There is enough intrigue built up right away that you want to find out more, and more secrets just keep coming and before I knew it I was totally sucked in.This was an incredible read and I just finished it today and I already want to read it all over again.

First, let me note that I am in no way an expert ‘reviewer’, and very seldom write reviews. I simply love to read and have read a range of historical fiction in my long life. I found ‘Conjure Women’ an excellent read, very interesting, and insightful. I grew up in the South listening to women with firsthand knowledge of slavery through the stories of their parents and grandparents, an oral history. It’s true that the sentence structure and syntax attributed to the slaves was at times possibly over complex, but I don’t think it took away from the story.As other reviewers noted, the story does switch back and forth among May Belle, Rue, and Varina; and Varina’s story was not as clear or fully faceted (my opinion) as the other two women. However, I truly enjoyed the storyline. The writing was rich in detail , and appears to be well-researched. I think this is an excellent first book for the young author! And, it’s well worth the time spent reading.

This is not just another slavery-oriented historical novel based on the author's family tradition. This author was born in England and lives in New Jersey She has no southern roots. Yes, she researched the period meticulously. But then she created an artificial world in which her characters could come alive and thrive despite crushing obstacles. That's what makes this book unique and interesting. It's not about the horrors of slavery. Rather it's about characters caught in a limbo-land between slavery and freedom, who don't really know what freedom means.There are two interwoven threads of story -- pre- and post- Civil War. The pre- is realistic, with dashes of possible magic and heavy foreshadowing of secrets, lies and their possible consequences. The plantation and the light dialect are not connected to any particular state. It's a generic, plausible, familiar setting for a Civil War/slavery story.The post- is an artificial world where the characters have to figure out their real identities and their real connections to one another. Through a series of lies for five years after the war, everything continues on the plantation as it had before the war. The characters feel tied to the land, but not by force of ownership and law. The plantation has no known owner and somehow (unexplained) everything continues as before. The implication is that they continue to work as they had before though now there is no owner and presumably no overseer. Somehow, they survive on the produce of the plantation without any need to sell or buy anything. Somehow, no one ever expects the plantation to pay taxes. Supernatural possibilities hum in the background but are never confirmed, This post-war world feels Kafkaesque or scifi.This novel isn't a hackneyed indictment of slavery. Rather it's an exploration of what happens to people when they are forced to live through extraordinary experiences, how they can relate to one another and how they can both shape and discover their identities. The rough edges, the questions left unanswered or answered ambiguously heighten the interest and make the characters all the more engaging and credible, and tempt the reader to read it a second or even a third time.

This is the best book I’ve read this year so far. It has such a captivating and poetic storyline and is at once tragic, stunning and deeply gripping.

This was a compelling novel that gave me information about slavery. I appreciated that the author had done extensive research before writing this novel. A good read.

I could not put this book down and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. A truly insightful journey with the lives of slaves and the in humane treatment of the white plantation owners. The spiritual, moral and cultural constraints of the way of life is the central tenet of the book. It is moving and horrific in equal measure. Highly recommended.

Thoroughly enjoyable story with wonderfully developed characters and compassionate soulful connections. A delightful heartfelt read story full of empathy and love

This book is a tale os slavery/freedoms at the end of the Civil War. The character of Rue is well developed and the story is both fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. I will definitely try to read more by Afia Atakora.