More of a companion novel to the Witching Savannah series than a sequel or prequel, this tells the backstory of the late great Mother Jilo Wills, one of the best characters. Having read that trilogy, and then Horn's next trilogy (The Witches of New Orleans) before circling back to Jilo, I can also see that it's a bit of a transitional book in terms of Horn's writing and also in terms of his focus on characters of color.

The story of Jilo's family, going back a few generations, is treated with love and respect, and Horn -- as always -- gets the atmosphere bang-on. The bulk of the book takes place between 1932 and 1958, spanning Jilo's first 26 years of life, and shifts to Jilo's POV only when she's about 20. Before that, the main POV is her own grandmother, May. This book can *almost* be read as a pure standalone, by readers who have not encountered the Witching Savannah trilogy, but for its glossing over of the complicated, Lovecraftian magical metaphysics presented there. Jilo (the book) focuses instead on themes of family, adversity (racial, economic, gender-based), and regional culture. There's a nice afterward directing readers to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor commission, presumably because Horn both A) wants to point to his sources and research, and B) wants readers to get information from the people with lived experience, and not just from a novel by a white man from Tennessee who now lives in California.

I loved this book. My only major quibble is with the pacing, which is consistent until near the end, whereupon it goes a little wild. Everything was fine, until I was like, "Huh?" Part of this is down to the reader having important information that has thus far been withheld from many of the characters, but when things finally come to a head they come a bit out of left field, and swirl madly around. Quite literally, in some cases! The epilogue brings a return to peace, of a sort, but also could have used just a touch more tie-in with the main WS trilogy.