Conjure Women by Afia Atakora is a multi-layered masterpiece! Even after weeks that has gone by since I read this book, that is pretty much my over all thoughts. Thank you, Random House for this gifted copy.

Conjure Women is a historical fiction set before, during, and after the Civil War, in the rural south. A group of former plantation slaves try to readjust to their new freedom as one member of the community, Rue - a healing woman - is accused of using witchcraft to plague the children.

Along with a beautiful cover, of which the meaning is revealed throughout the course of the novel, this book has an exceptional storyline that discusses crucial topics such as race, slavery, gender, social class, health, faith, and familial relationships. Every scene is ripe with symbolism and metaphoric meaning, which to me, as a former English major, made the plot so much more interesting. But for readers who aren't interesting in decoding writing, I can see how that wouldn't necessarily be ideal!

Initially, I wasn't totally sold on the nonlinear plot of this story. It frequently shifts around in the timeline, going from pre-Civil War, to during wartime, to the aftermath - sometimes not even following any organized plot at all. But after a while, I actually found this structure to be quite effective and interesting. It permitted Afia Atakora to reveal crucial plot points in key moments and then follow them up with flashback scenes that added more context and depth to the storyline.

Overall, I found this to be an extremely thought-provoking novel with a surprising ending. A lot of the time, I find that I can guess the ending of novels, but that wasn't the case with this one. It was fresh, original, and invigorating. I highly recommend this read.

Wow. One of my favorite reads of 2020. A story of plantation life and at its center the healer and an enigmatic preacher. The beliefs of the slaves are tested as a sickness spreads through the property. The power of hoodoo beliefs vs. The Bible. Memorable characters with Rue the conjure woman being a favorite. Some fall in love, some don't and they all try to survive as the North comes. And then the KKK. A great read covering a lot of ground and evoking much emotion.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

This is a gorgeous debut and I look forward to seeing more of what Atakora writes in the future.

Focusing on two African American women, Rue and May Belle, during the Civil War and in the turbulent times just following the North's victory, Conjure Women is at its heart a celebration of women's work and women's roles in society. May Belle and Rue are healers for their community, particularly helping the women of the plantation to give birth to their babies. But while May Belle was largely celebrated for her talents, Rue falls under suspicion when she helps to deliver a baby with scaly, light skin and jet black eyes. The novel explores intersections of magic, faith, and healing through the community's reaction to baby Bean. Race is of course another element of this book, especially in Rue's relationship with the slave master's daughter, Varina.

I loved the character development in this book, particularly when it came to Rue and her relationships with the other members of the former plantation. While some events of the book are far-fetched and magical, the characters' reactions felt real. In addition, the plot itself was engaging and kept me guessing with the mystery elements that had been added in. I appreciate the interweaving of African and African American folklore throughout the story as well. There are certainly parts that were difficult to read, but any story that has slavery as an element is going to have those moments if it is being truthful to the horrors of that period.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. It reminded me a lot of The Revisioners, which I read earlier this year, both in setting and in themes. Yet this book succeeded in ways that The Revisioners did not for me, and for that I was grateful.

TW: miscarriage; child lost during birth; racial slurs; racism; violence

A narrative that takes you through the Civil War and post-slavery period in the (post) Confederate South from the perspective of two women known for healing and supporting their community in sickness and childbirth.

The contrasts of slavery and freedom, white and black dynamics, religion versus curses and mysticism, life and death, and more resonate throughout the book. I was absorbed into Miss May Belle (mother) and Rue's (daughter) narrative. Afia Atakora's storytelling kept me engaged and reflecting about what it would have been like at a time of so much change.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Conjure Women is a work of historical fiction, and a debut novel for this author, who is certainly very skilled. The book is rich in symbolism and piercing social commentary. The complicated plot follows the connection between three women in particular. The enslaved mother & conjurer, her daughter and the white woman who owns them. It explores the ways that relationships between women, between masters and the enslaved can be both intimate and bitter.

I didn’t rate the book higher because I had difficulty connecting to the main character, and the jumps in time back and forth made piecing the plot together a little more work than usual. Lingering confusion over what is happening can take you out of a story and I think that’s what influenced my feelings about the book. It is a good book, and probably deserves a deeper reading than I was able to put into it at this time.

I don’t know about any of you, but living in the time we are makes it harder for me to concentrate. I need something to take me out of this current reality, full of fears about coronavirus, being an essential worker and all the worries that come with it. I know you’re all probably feeling much the same. I do hope, however, that this book doesn’t suffer from being released at a time when we are maybe not as ready to read it. I think it deserves to be studied much more closely.

A great story! Beautifully and creatively woven and kept me going and on my toes the entire time. This book is wet Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer wanted to be. The perfect combination of American slavery history with mysticism and magic but also eerily realistic. It came back full circle and just made sense! Beautiful

Healing is the family business in Conjure Women. This was my second 5/5 rating this year. This novel does a good job of nursing you through a historically dark time with its beautiful storytelling. The story is broken into two time periods, Rue's youth under the tutelage of her mother May Belle, who is the plantation healer and Rue as a young adult becoming a healer in her own right. The generational baggage was so real, Rue and May Belle reminded me of the women in my life because of their protectiveness, spirituality, and secrets. If you're a fan of Jesymn Ward, Toni Morrison, and Angela Flournoy this is the book for you!


Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the advanced reader's e-copy.

This generational saga, set on a slave plantation in the south, follows Miss May Belle, the wise midwife and conjurer; her protégé daughter Rue; and Varina, the slave owner's daughter, and Rue's childhood playmate. Each woman's acts of conjuring sets in motion a turn of events that cause happiness, deception, or death. This well-developed plot captivates readers with a colorful cast of characters and tales about the horrors of slavery, the matters of motherhood, heartache, and intimacy between lovers, and a slave community torn between the Christian faith and Hoodoo practices. Afia Atakora has a stunning writing style. Readers who enjoy historical fiction with strong female-driven characters will appreciate the novel's puzzle-piecing plot that's inspired by records derived from the Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.

I enjoyed this novel very much. The storylines and character development was well done. It goes back and forth between slavery times and the immediate years after the Civil War. You truly got to understand each character and tap in to their history. The ending chapters were my favorite because the plot twists were unexpected.

This was difficult for me to get through. I think flashing back and forth so quickly between pre and post war threw me off and I struggled to keep track of everything. The premise was interesting and I liked the descriptive language.

CONJURE WOMEN by Afia Atakora - Thanks to @netgalley @randomhouse for the advanced copy of this book!

Rue is a third-generation conjure woman: a healer and midwife to the black community on the Southern land of a former plantation. After the birth of a strange baby and the appearance of a new sickness in the community, people begin to distrust Rue’s traditional ways and focus on the new power of a traveling preacher. Is their disbelief well-founded? What has Rue sacrificed in order to keep their newly-free community safe? Alternating between perspectives in “FREEDOMTIME” and “SLAVERYTIME,” this historical fiction novel reveals the lives of Rue and her mother, May Belle, and tells the story of their precarious power and freedom.

This book was such a well-crafted slow burn. A seemingly straight-forward plot slowly unfurls to reveal a complex web of secrets, lies, and decisions, and the driving forces and unintended consequences of each of these choices. Through a story of conjure, we see how each person must grapple with the forces of hope, trust, loneliness, and manipulation to protect themselves and those that they love.

During COVID-19, I’ve struggled with reading long books, books about illness, and sad books. This book is all three, and I loved it! When I started reading CONJURE WOMEN, I knew it was going to be sad, but I did not know that a mysterious deathly illness was a major plot point of this novel. This is a very different take than any sort of apocalyptic novel, as it focuses more on Rue’s relationship with the effects of the illness, and it is not the sole focus of the book. There are large and small heartbreaks throughout the book, some extremely sad, and some wrapped up with a lot of perseverance and possibility.

Whether you think you want to read this book now or save it for a less chaotic moment in time, it is a beautifully written #ownvoices book that deserves our support. You can always put it on your shelf for later!!

First of all, that cover! It's so beautiful and was the first thing to draw me in. Pretty covers have a tendency to disappoint me, but Afia Atakora's writiing is nothing short of wonderful. And it's her debut! Very excited to see what this author comes up with next.

I won an advanced copy of Conjure Women through Netgalley and Goodreads, so I could share my review with you!

Healing and cursing run hand in hand in the world of Conjure Women. Miss Rue, and her mother Miss May Bell before her, have been in charge of caring for the for the people living on their plantation. Their duties have ranged from everything from delivering babies to imparting spells of harm. When Rue delivers one baby that comes out with strange, scaled skin and eyes like little black beans, she fears that a reckoning is upon the plantation. With this birth, the secrets and lies that have been festering beneath the surface of the town seem to edge toward the light, filling the people with fear and anger. Telling the story of three women bonded together by circumstance and conjuring, this book is set in two times-before and after the civil war- to fully capture the facets of Rue’s life.

You can get your copy of Conjure Women on April 7th from Random House Publishing!

Conjure Women is Afia Atakora’s debut novel, and I was absolutely stunned by the beautiful prose found within. The finesse with which she weaves elements of magic into her story is incredible, creating a fully believable world, where abnormal things occasionally happen. To me, Conjure Women was reminiscent of the great works of Toni Morrison, and could easily hold its own next to such classics.

My Recommendation-
If you are a fan of deep works of literary complexity, Conjure Women would be an excellent pick for your next read! Additionally, if you’re a fan of historical fiction, this book is unlike any other historical novel I’ve ever read. This book would be perfect for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coats, Coulson Whitehead and Toni Morrison!

Do you like reading Civil War or African American historical fiction? Are you interested in superstitions that can destroy or save or maybe in mysterious infectious diseases ravaging a community? Do you enjoy plots driven by slowly revealed secrets or by background facts revealed slowly over time? Do you like stories alternating between two memorable central characters? If so, look now for Afia Atakora’s cativating debut novel, Conjure Woman.

Atakora draws upon long phone conversations with her grandmother in Ghana and upon slave narratives collected during the 1930s by WPA workers, helping her with “voice and flavor, curses and cures.”
She skillfully divides Conjure Woman into five parts. Parts One and Two alternate between chapters titled “Slave Time” and “Freedom,” the former focusing on Miss May Belle, a conjure woman and midwife, and the latter focusing on Miss Maybelle’s daughter Rue. Part Three alternates between “Wartime” and “The Ravaging,” the later concerning an infectious fever causing children and some adults to sicken and sometimes die and resulting in the community’s placing the blame on two of its own members. Parts Four and Five juxtapose “Wartime” and “Promise,” “Wartime” and “Exodus,” the latter pair also including two additional chapters: “Surrender” and “Gilead.”

Along with Miss May Belle and Rue, some other major characters include Bruh Abel, an itinerant black preacher; Black Eyed Bean, a slave child believed to have been born under a curse; and elderly Mama Doe, whose own children and been torn from her but who raises parentless slave children and nurtures young Varina, plantation owner Marse Charles’ daughter and Rue’s childhood playmate.

A story of birth, death, and resurrection; white religion, black evangelism, and hoodoo superstitions; slave music and dancing, minstrel show entertainment; “haints” and forgery, treachery, love, and fierce devotion, despair and hope, Atakora’s Conjure Woman kept me up late at night, not wanting to close my iPad.

Thanks to Random House, NetGalley, and the author for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

ALL THE STARS! A highly entertaining and enjoyable debut I couldn’t put down! Conjure Women tells the story of three southern women before, during and after the Civil War. All three navigate through the politics of slavery, racism, war and the propriety’s of class in the Deep South during that time in history. The undercurrents of voodoo/hoodoo and a belief in haint’s are prevalent throughout giving this a haunted, spooky appeal that made this story come alive for me. From it’s first page I was quickly transported back in time to the Southern antebellum years.. to a plantation with hundreds of slaves working fields as far as the eye can see, to the dirt floored slave’s quarters, to their masters multiple white columned big house. Pour yourself a glass of sweet tea, sit back and relax a spell with Afia Atakora’s incredible debut. The old south as seen through the eyes of two female slaves and a plantation owners daughter.. surprising, unique and is honestly a breath of fresh air in this genre. Added to the very top of my “Best Books of the Year” list.

"𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘰; 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘳."⁣
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Conjure Women by Afia Atakora transports you to another place and time. This story follows the character of Rue, who is living on a southern plantation over multiple timelines pre-Civil War (slavery) and post-Civil War (freedomtide). It was very interesting and eye-opening to read from the perspective of a child growing up during these times, and then to experience through the narrator the buildup to the moment when freedom is granted. Rue's mother was a healer on the plantation, passing down her knowledge to her daughter who practices healing when her mother is no longer able to. When an illness (the ravaging) starts sweeping through the area, taking the lives of many children, Rue's abilities are questioned and challenged.⁣
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𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 Random House 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 Net Galley 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.⁣

Conjure Women, set in the South during Civil War times, tells the stories of two African American women. The story flips back and forth between Miss May Belle and her daughter Rue, telling of life during slavery and during “freedom.”

This novel was very atmospheric and lush. The dialogue and character descriptions made me feel that I was in the village with Rue and her mom. As you switched back and forth between May Belle and Rue, the pieces of the story slowly began to fit together. It managed to be both beautiful and horrifying.

I appreciated the novel, though it was more character-driven than plot-driven. Atakora drew up some very interesting imagery, especially with the foxes. Overall though, I felt that I didn’t fully grasp what the author was going for. I would’ve loved to have read this with other people and been able to discuss what was going on. Many times, I knew that I had read something important, but the imagery slipped through my fingers and it was lost to me.

This novel was extremely atmospheric and well-written, with the addition of a beautiful cover. Too often though, I felt lost and found myself grasping for the meaning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the free ebook in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Civil War-era is not one that I often read about. Typically historical fiction that I gravitate towards is World War II so when I saw the setting and plot for Conjure Women by Afia Atakora, I was immediately interested. In the past, I have read and loved The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim, and Cane River by Lalita Tademy all of which I highly recommend, all about slaves.

Here’s the synopsis:

Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a midwife; and their master’s daughter Varina. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.

Magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined, Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love.

I can’t believe this incredible story was a debut novel! It’s such a fantastic read, so perfectly structured and written that I would guess it came from an author who has written many books. The themes of plantation life, the Civil War, healing, slavery, plus mothers and daughters are all present in this book. I think you will absolutely love it.

Published on April 7! Order here.

I was drawn to this book because of the cover (yes, I do judge a book by it’s cover!) and the title, since I really enjoy books involving witches, voodoo, and hoodoo. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, although I usually like it when I do, but one of my reading goals this year is to read more historical fiction, so I really wanted to give Conjure Women by Afia Atakora a read. And I am very glad I did since this book is very well written and stayed with me for days after I finished.

Atakora writes very complex characters that show how deeply they are flawed and how full of life and hope they are filled, during a horrendous point in history. May and Rue work helping fellow slaves and the plantation owner’s family through herbs, midwifery, and hoodoo, but they are human and have wants and needs that benefit only them. Miss May Belle wants to shield Rue as much as possible, but in doing so makes Rue’s life harder in ways. And after May is gone, Rue continues on with her mother’s work, but she too has people she is trying to shield from harsh realities and this does not always work out in a good way.

Atakora also takes a look at how village’s wise women have been held in esteem until something can’t be fixed with herbal magic (a plague that starts killing the children) or when a man (in this case, a preacher named Abel) starts making the people question the wise woman via religion or a western approach to medicine. This is something that has been happening for thousands of years and still happens today.

This review doesn’t even cover a tenth of what takes place in the book. I highly recommend you read it and discover the amazing story for yourself.