"Conjure Women" is a fascinating look at how life was and/or might have been in the subculture of the enslaved people of the American South in the years before, during, and after the Civil War. Atakora's decision to tie the history of the time into a fictional plot supported by aspects of magical realism in the formal of traditional, cultural types of healing made a profound difference in how impactful the story and the meaning of it came across.

It doesn't have many failings; really only that there might be too many threads for a novel of its size to pay proper due to all of them.

The characters are unique and interesting, and their stories are easy to get caught up and keep reading to find out where they go.

- I received a copy of "Conjure Women" through NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest and original review.

4.5 stars - It's always interesting to me which books get a lot of fanfare and which don't. This book reminded me so much of Jesmyn Ward's "Let Us Descend" - a title that has ended up on many bestseller lists this year, while "Conjure Women" was barely talked about when it came out. Both books follow strong, magical women during slavery who use their intelligence and healing powers to survive in the world. Atakora's novel is every bit as haunting and captivating as Ward's.

This book was extremely hard to read at times (you can imagine the breadth of types of violence and terror perpetrated on women during this time period). I felt a tad sick to my stomach at times reading it, but that's only because Atakora's writing is so detailed and authentic and her characters so unique and rich.

My main complaint is that it was a tad hard to follow at times because there was so much switching back and forth within time frames (and a few times with narrators as well). I think the story would have benefitted from being a bit more linear. Otherwise, I'm a huge fan of this book. As heart-wrenching as it was to read, it was also such a gift to go on this journey with these characters. It's crazy that this was Atakora's debut novel - I can't wait to read whatever she writes next!

What an interesting read! I fell in love with the tight knit community and the strength of the women! It was a nice escape read of seeing women all working together to keep their families together. Thank you for the ARC NetGalley!

I have really come to admire the growing bibliography of literature on the enslaved. Atakora makes a stunning addition to this bibliography with Conjure Women.

Engrossing from the very start, Atakora's writing glides off the page and into the reader's heart, sharing the horrors and joys of black women's lives in the antebellum and post-antebellum South. The story centers around three main characters - Rue, the daughter of a plantation conjure woman and a powerful magic user in her own right; May Belle, her mother and head conjure woman; and Varina, the plantation master's daughter. As the town healers, Rue and her mother both know most of the town's and plantation's secrets - and this ends up bringing them their biggest woes. The story immediately sucks one in, and the use of time jumps builds up the mystery around many of the secrets. Atakora takes her time revealing each one, but by the end, you'll be in awe of the webs she's woven into this book. Masterful storytelling, and I can't wait for her next book.

3.5 - Definitely pick this one up if you enjoy character-driven books with a rich sense of time and place. It’s beautifully written and the characters are all extremely vividly drawn and real; the story focuses on Rue and pivots between her younger self and young adult self, as she navigates life within her small community of slaves/ex-slaves and her double-edged bond with her young white mistress. The book examines a well-known period of history—slavery in the American South during and after the Civil War—but with a razor-focused, more contemporary-feeling lens. There is a strong sense of how this Black community is so claustrophobically kept within their own bubble, tied to their plantation even after the war ends, hardly daring to believe the truth of their own freedom and pivoting to face new threats and the racism still very much present in the world around them. These themes were all really well-done and impactful. As far as structure goes, I usually don’t love books that alternate back and forth within a timeline; and in this one I did feel a bit as though every time I started to get into the story I was pulled back out and placed back into the other timeline. The slow pace also made it a bit hard to keep pushing through at times; but by the end it did come together and tie up loose ends.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Conjure Women is an amazing debut that is a must read. Told in alternating voices, these women leap from the page.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Hands down one of my favorite books in a long time. The multigenerational story moving from the Civil War to the times after will pull you in and not let go until the final page.

Hard to believe this was the authors first novel because it’s off the charts amazing! Powerful women and the healing and magic that women have shared across the ages make for a truly compelling tale.

A slow paced read that spends much of the first half of the book building anticipation to something, this story will likely appeal most to those with incredible amounts of patience.

The description of this story is what drew me in, it was something I thought was a very promising plot line. It's a historical piece right around the time of the abolishment of slavery. There is an alternating time line following the mother in the past and the daughter in the "present", but some of the storyline transitions are abrupt or roughly written. At times I found the story very dry and hard to trudge through, and other times I was captivated. All in all, for historical context it felt very well thought out and researched for authenticity, but was a tough novel to get through due to the pacing and timeline hopping. I wish there had been a touch more of the "conjure hoo doo", but the mysticism around it was still well done.

The themes (race, slavery, truth v lies, women, sin, etc) in this book were very well researched and implemented, but I did struggle with the storytelling throughout. The main character, Rue was not the most compelling character, and while things happened around her, neither she as a character, nor the events happening felt sufficient enough to drive a book of this length. Rue was well-developed and pretty inoffensive, if a little uninteresting compared to her mother, Miss May.

The beginning of the book was by far the strongest while the ending was a complete and total disappointment. It tended to meander and lack direction making it too long in the middle which is odd for a book with so many small events going on, each of which have potential to be much more significant. Overall, this was a good debut novel, and I appreciated the author's ability to explore a variety of character emotions and motivations. "Conjure Women" will definitely invoke good group discussions.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House, and Afia Atakora for providing me an advanced reader's copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The characters are written with depth and complexity. The writing is first rate. The plotting leaves a bit to be desired in pacing and the climax? Blink and you miss it or maybe it is just missing?

Why isn't everyone talking about this book??? This was so good! Such a great mix of witchy goodness and historical fiction.

Interesting book, evocative, mesmerizing and well-written.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. All the best to the author for future endeavors.

What a fantastic example of magical realism, historical fiction, Own Voices. Truly a beautiful novel.

This is a book for those who love reading about mother daughter relationships! The writing was beautiful and the story was so imaginative. There’s a dual timeline that alternates throughout the book, which makes the reading experience so much richer. A wonderful book!

I was interested in this book because it draws heavily from the history of a freedman village just post-Civil War. I thought there might be some magical realism in the book, but in the end I wouldn't call it that.

The book skips back and forth between Slavetime and Freetime and this back-and-forthing made things a bit more confusing than they might have needed to be. It also kept the present-day story moving slowly. I knew going into this book that it was likely to touch on some difficult and painful topics.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really attach to the main character, Rue. I would rather the book had centered on her mother, Miss May Belle. Both women are considered to be conjure women by their village, but May Belle was far more sophisticated, intelligent and canny than her daughter. In her efforts to protect her daughter, May Belle left Rue naive and uneducated in a lot of things that she really did as a conjure woman.

The other part that got me skimming instead of reading was that in the end, it was all about who slept with who and whose kid was whose. It ended up feeling like almost a soap opera, but without the over the top drama.

This book took a while to make it's way to me and I'm glad it did. What initially made it difficult to read was the differing perspectives of Rue and Miss May Belle and the switching back and forth between timee, but overall it's deserving of the 3-star review I'm granting it. Beyond all else, Afia Atakora was able to demostrate the complexity of human fragility, the true essence of what makes us all complex, but more so her characters were so well written, that they were the true heroines of this novel, I was especially in love with the fact that we got to know and understand Miss Rue prior to slavery and its abolishment and post-"freedom". It was a tantalizing look, if not just a piece, of what truly happened, and is still happening to black American women.

I really enjoy multigenerational stories, and I love how this one flashed between "Slaverytime," "Wartime" and "Freedomtime." The writing is beautiful and the characters were engaging.

Conjure Women, a debut novel of historical fiction, is set on a plantation in the American South ‘in slaverytime, wartime, in freedomtime.’ The two main characters are Miss May Belle and her daughter Rue.

Marse Charles has tasked May Belle with keeping his slaves healthy with her knowledge of herbs and midwifery. But her fellow slaves often come to her for a little hoodoo. She passes on her knowledge as best she can to her daughter, but Rue’s stock in trade leans towards lies and secrets, which she justifies by thinking ‘every wrong she’d ever done, she’d done to protect others.’

After the war, the former slaves build themselves a little village from what remains of the slave cabins. When their children begin to sicken and die, they lose faith in Rue and welcome a smooth-tongued preacher who comes into this midst. Can he drive the devil out?

The story moves back and forth across the timelines, slowly revealing how events unfolded. The characters are richly drawn; the plot complex.

The only white character we come to know is the Marse’s daughter, Miss Varina. She is perhaps more stereotypical than the other characters, being the usual spoiled rotten and pampered prima donna. But she and Rue form an unlikely friendship, symbolized by the turnabout doll Miss May Belle makes for Varina (beautifully depicted on the cover of this book): turned one way, it’s Varina; turned over, it’s Rue, forever intertwined.

I received an arc of this debut novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. i apologize for not getting it done in a more timely fashion but many thanks for the opportunity. This author will be one to watch in the future.