Bayou Myth by Mary Ann Loesch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Young Adult, Paranormal Romantic Thriller
“You can’t be no great priestess if you are always walking on the safe side of the path. Take risks even if that might mean fighting against normal.”
16 year old Joan Renault is the great granddaughter of the legendary voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, whose magical gifts have been past down to Joan. Teased her whole life by the other kids and called “hoodoo hag”, she just wishes she was normal but what comes to her little town is anything but normal and she must rely on all her training in order to put a stop to the evil.
For years, Joan has been taking lessons from her dead Grandmere Marie to become the next great voodoo priestess. While on a midnight astral walk, Joan witnesses a small child being devoured by a great tree called the Old One, leaving only the boy’s head behind. When she wakes up in bed, she hopes that it was just a dream. That is until a couple days later at her frienemy’s house they discover on the back porch, the body of a little boy with his head sown back on, and a bloody alter in the shed. After that, Joan knows that something evil has been unleashed in her little community and she must use all the powers she has to fight it. She must first find out from her Grandmere exactly what it is that she is fighting.
“A long time ago, I trapped an ancient voodoo spirit in the Old One. Powerful, dangerous, and manipulative, it told the prettiest lies in its quest to regain lost powers. Took a lot to get it trapped in the tree. Cost me the love of a friend and the life of a child. Now someone has come along and set this evil creature free. I suspect it is searching for a permanent home, a new body, and its long lost powers. My spell book holds both the secret of trapping it again, and how to make it stay in its new physical form.”
Joan must decipher who she can trust and who could be possessed by an evil spirit.
“I’m used to spirits getting physical, but usually they are cold beings who just can’t keep their ghostly little hands to themselves. This was something different. It smelled like sulfur and dried blood and the sense of hate it gave off—it sickened me.”
“Trying to summon a woman like Grandmere who has been dead for over a hundred years can be a real pain in the ass. In fact, summoning any dead spirit can be trouble because you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes—well, sometimes you open the door to hell. I try to avoid that one—it’s bad for my hair and draws the wrong kind of attention.”
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. This was actually very enjoyable and funny. Being a Young Adult novel, it was a fast and easy read. It included some romance, of course, Joan has a secret crush on her long time best friend Dave but is afraid her feelings will ruin everything between them. This provides a good helping of sexual tension throughout.
I like the characters, they seem very realistic and remind me about what high school life was like. Young kids don’t always make the best decisions and I certainly found myself wanting to shake the characters from time to time, especially Joan, and tell them what they should do. Then I remind myself that they are kids and this is a YA book.
I love the culture in Louisiana around Voodoo and Hoodoo. I have always found these subjects so interesting and enjoy books and movies around it. This book was no exception. I will definitely put book 2 on my TBR list.
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