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This Wicked Game
Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years.
The voodoo business.
Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaids run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.
She doesn’t believe.
Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.
But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.
Including her own.
As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her.
The voodoo business.
Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaids run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.
She doesn’t believe.
Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.
But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.
Including her own.
As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published November 14, 2013
21 people are currently reading
3833 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Zink
29 books1,471 followersMichelle Zink is author of the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy, A Temptation of Angels, and This Wicked Game. Her next book, Lies I Told, releases Spring 2015.
Learn more on Michelle's blog at www.michellezink.com.
Learn more on Michelle's blog at www.michellezink.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
December 4, 2013
Voodoo? More like fucking doo-doo.
My reviews usually follow a pattern: introduction, summary, analysis of characters/settings/plot. Fuck that shit. I am so incandescent with anger that I can hardly think straight right now, much less formulate a fully analytical review. You want a summary? Look at the fucking summary on the book's page. I'm not gonna fucking bother because the problem with this book goes beyond that.
But in brief: the characters are nothing offensive, nothing special, lacking in personality, development, complexity; in essence, they lack essence.
The plot is dull, full of fucking holes, because at the very end I still can't figure the fuck out why the hell the special-snowflake that is our main character is so bloody special in the first place and why the hell her powers came out of freaking nowhere when throughout the book she's been all "Nooooo, nooooooooo, I don't want anything to do with voodoo, despite my heritage as the great-great granddaughter of Zee Great Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau." Despite having such a grand fucking heritage, she's still completely moronic and Too Stupid To Live, wanting to rush off to visit a woman who wants to buy some freaking Panther Plasma (you heard me right, Panther Plasma) to create some kind of Avada-Kedavra-related spell. Ok, so the woman wants to use this plasma whose only purpose is to be used to KILL SOMEONE, let's just go running off to fucking visit her before consulting the adults.
But the stupid characters and the hole-ridden plot are the least of my complaints about this book. Here we go:
Let's start off with two definitions:
Misappropriate: /transitive verb/
1. to put to a wrong use.
2. to apply wrongfully or dishonestly (dictionary.com)
Example: This book misappropriates the traditional folk religion of Voodoo by twisting it into a form that is fucked up beyond recognition in order to make the religion fit into the plot.
Whitewashing: (slang) the entertainment industry's attempt at making ethnic characters more appealing to the white, money-spending masses by making exotic characters less ethnic and more "white." (urbandictionary.com)
Example: This book whitewashes the entire traditionally Haitian/African-based Voodoo religion by making every single practitioner white, or if not white, so mixed as to appear merely "exotic-looking."
I am absolutely aghast at the rampant amount of cultural and religious inaccuracies and inconsistencies within this book.
New Orleans? What New Orleans: This book takes place in New Orleans. You might have heard of it. It's a city in Louisiana, valued because of its cultural heritage, its mishmash of culture. It was also absolutely devastated, ravaged, destroyed, gutted to the ground thanks to a little event known as Hurricane Katrina some 10 years ago. The city is still recovering. It is still a mess. Not that you'd know from reading this book.
I read books based on the South for the atmosphere. There is no atmosphere in this book. Besides some name-dropping of places, besides the mention of the heat, besides for like...2 paragraphs of some broken-down places in New Orleans, this place might have taken place in Wichita, Kansas, for all I know. But wait! It still could be Wichita, Kansas. They've got hot summers and poor areas, too! There is absolutely nothing in this book that makes the city of New Orleans into a real place for me. As for the poor? What poor? The people in this book are the rich few, the privileged few of New Orleans. They're voodoo guild leaders. They just happen to be millionaires, driving Range Rovers and Lexus and Mercedes and blue SUVs living in their plush, posh mansions on First Street and taking their yoga classes.
New Orleans is an extremely diverse city: you wouldn't fucking know it from reading this book. Let me refer you to this page on New Orleans' cultural diversity (boy, I'm just a fountain of fucking education tonight, aren't I?). To sum it up: White: 22%, black: 60%.
And then let's see how diverse this book is: OH, WAIT, IT'S NOT. From what you can tell about this book, the characters are like....99.754% white, and the rest are a mix of "exotic" golden, caramel skin, chocolate-colored eyes. Not a single fucking black person to be found anywhere within 500 miles of this book. Everyone is blonde, red haired, chestnut-haired, copper-haired.
OH WAIT, ONE CHARACTER HAS BLONDE DREADLOCKS. THAT MAKES IT ALL OK BECAUSE BLACK PEOPLE WEAR DREADLOCKS. Just kidding. Fuck you, book. Everyone is "pale skinned," "porcelain skinned." Anyone not completely white, anyone who is mixed-race is "exotic." Any accent that is anything but American is "exotic." Fuck the word exotic. It is paternalistic, it is patronizing, it reeks of cultural insensitivity when you lump everyone whose coloring is different than you into one fucking word because you can't be fucked to distinguish them otherwise.
And blue eyes. So. Many. Blue. Eyes.
Voodoo is the religion of white people: You heard me. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry throughout this book. Back to our theme of the day: edumacating. Voodoo is a West-Indies/African-based folk religion. Its practitioners are mostly black. "Fuck that," says this book. "Let's make all the LEADERS of the Voodoo religion into white people or else barely mixed people. Let's completely whitewash Voodoo uses to making "doll babies" (voodoo dolls) and some mild chanting and summoning." Let's also conveniently ignore the fact that so few people actually practice Voodoo as to make it barely register in the country's statistical demographics, yet these leaders are as rich as fucking TV evangelists with their millions of weekly worshippers. SCREW THE DETAILS.
Voodoo is not a pretty religion. There are many types of it, let's keep it simple and stick to traditional Haitian Voodoo. It uses music, chanting, dance, spirit possession, animal sacrifice. Yeah, animal sacrifice. Speaking in tongues? Ever watch a documentary? It's bloody, it's dirty, it's not clean, it's deeply spiritual. It's scary, and it's not something you fuck around with lightly, and turn into a spiffy little ritual with white tunic wearing practitioners as this book does. This book completely whitewashes the elements of traditional Voodoo into a neat, clean little package of mysticism. It limits the extent of it to pretty much loas, houngans, some herbs and spells, and voodoo dolls. And a little bit of blood, thrown in for good measure.
The books? OH, THERE ARE VOODOO MANUALS. Seriously, there's African Potions and Recipes for Love and Authentic Haitian Voodoo for Health and Wellness. The chanting? It's more like something a bunch of Wiccan priestesses would chant under a full moon:
The quasi-Voodoo people in this book are the leaders of the Guild, a bunch of largely white families in charge of the Voodoo religion. They have members in Europe, Asia, all over the world.
Fuck the whitewashing, fuck the cultural misappropriation, fuck the lack of diversity, fuck everything about this book. Way to take over a culture for your own use, Tom-Cruise-and-the-Last-Samurai style.
My reviews usually follow a pattern: introduction, summary, analysis of characters/settings/plot. Fuck that shit. I am so incandescent with anger that I can hardly think straight right now, much less formulate a fully analytical review. You want a summary? Look at the fucking summary on the book's page. I'm not gonna fucking bother because the problem with this book goes beyond that.
But in brief: the characters are nothing offensive, nothing special, lacking in personality, development, complexity; in essence, they lack essence.
The plot is dull, full of fucking holes, because at the very end I still can't figure the fuck out why the hell the special-snowflake that is our main character is so bloody special in the first place and why the hell her powers came out of freaking nowhere when throughout the book she's been all "Nooooo, nooooooooo, I don't want anything to do with voodoo, despite my heritage as the great-great granddaughter of Zee Great Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau." Despite having such a grand fucking heritage, she's still completely moronic and Too Stupid To Live, wanting to rush off to visit a woman who wants to buy some freaking Panther Plasma (you heard me right, Panther Plasma) to create some kind of Avada-Kedavra-related spell. Ok, so the woman wants to use this plasma whose only purpose is to be used to KILL SOMEONE, let's just go running off to fucking visit her before consulting the adults.
But the stupid characters and the hole-ridden plot are the least of my complaints about this book. Here we go:
Let's start off with two definitions:
Misappropriate: /transitive verb/
1. to put to a wrong use.
2. to apply wrongfully or dishonestly (dictionary.com)
Example: This book misappropriates the traditional folk religion of Voodoo by twisting it into a form that is fucked up beyond recognition in order to make the religion fit into the plot.
Whitewashing: (slang) the entertainment industry's attempt at making ethnic characters more appealing to the white, money-spending masses by making exotic characters less ethnic and more "white." (urbandictionary.com)
Example: This book whitewashes the entire traditionally Haitian/African-based Voodoo religion by making every single practitioner white, or if not white, so mixed as to appear merely "exotic-looking."
I am absolutely aghast at the rampant amount of cultural and religious inaccuracies and inconsistencies within this book.
New Orleans? What New Orleans: This book takes place in New Orleans. You might have heard of it. It's a city in Louisiana, valued because of its cultural heritage, its mishmash of culture. It was also absolutely devastated, ravaged, destroyed, gutted to the ground thanks to a little event known as Hurricane Katrina some 10 years ago. The city is still recovering. It is still a mess. Not that you'd know from reading this book.
I read books based on the South for the atmosphere. There is no atmosphere in this book. Besides some name-dropping of places, besides the mention of the heat, besides for like...2 paragraphs of some broken-down places in New Orleans, this place might have taken place in Wichita, Kansas, for all I know. But wait! It still could be Wichita, Kansas. They've got hot summers and poor areas, too! There is absolutely nothing in this book that makes the city of New Orleans into a real place for me. As for the poor? What poor? The people in this book are the rich few, the privileged few of New Orleans. They're voodoo guild leaders. They just happen to be millionaires, driving Range Rovers and Lexus and Mercedes and blue SUVs living in their plush, posh mansions on First Street and taking their yoga classes.
New Orleans is an extremely diverse city: you wouldn't fucking know it from reading this book. Let me refer you to this page on New Orleans' cultural diversity (boy, I'm just a fountain of fucking education tonight, aren't I?). To sum it up: White: 22%, black: 60%.
And then let's see how diverse this book is: OH, WAIT, IT'S NOT. From what you can tell about this book, the characters are like....99.754% white, and the rest are a mix of "exotic" golden, caramel skin, chocolate-colored eyes. Not a single fucking black person to be found anywhere within 500 miles of this book. Everyone is blonde, red haired, chestnut-haired, copper-haired.
“Just about,” Claire said. A strand of her long blond hair fell forward. She tucked it behind one ear and continued transcribing the woman’s list.Well, that is such an important sentence. I would never know what happens with the plot if Claire's blonde hair didn't fall over her shoulders. Claire is just so, so pretty!
OH WAIT, ONE CHARACTER HAS BLONDE DREADLOCKS. THAT MAKES IT ALL OK BECAUSE BLACK PEOPLE WEAR DREADLOCKS. Just kidding. Fuck you, book. Everyone is "pale skinned," "porcelain skinned." Anyone not completely white, anyone who is mixed-race is "exotic." Any accent that is anything but American is "exotic." Fuck the word exotic. It is paternalistic, it is patronizing, it reeks of cultural insensitivity when you lump everyone whose coloring is different than you into one fucking word because you can't be fucked to distinguish them otherwise.
And blue eyes. So. Many. Blue. Eyes.
Voodoo is the religion of white people: You heard me. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry throughout this book. Back to our theme of the day: edumacating. Voodoo is a West-Indies/African-based folk religion. Its practitioners are mostly black. "Fuck that," says this book. "Let's make all the LEADERS of the Voodoo religion into white people or else barely mixed people. Let's completely whitewash Voodoo uses to making "doll babies" (voodoo dolls) and some mild chanting and summoning." Let's also conveniently ignore the fact that so few people actually practice Voodoo as to make it barely register in the country's statistical demographics, yet these leaders are as rich as fucking TV evangelists with their millions of weekly worshippers. SCREW THE DETAILS.
Voodoo is not a pretty religion. There are many types of it, let's keep it simple and stick to traditional Haitian Voodoo. It uses music, chanting, dance, spirit possession, animal sacrifice. Yeah, animal sacrifice. Speaking in tongues? Ever watch a documentary? It's bloody, it's dirty, it's not clean, it's deeply spiritual. It's scary, and it's not something you fuck around with lightly, and turn into a spiffy little ritual with white tunic wearing practitioners as this book does. This book completely whitewashes the elements of traditional Voodoo into a neat, clean little package of mysticism. It limits the extent of it to pretty much loas, houngans, some herbs and spells, and voodoo dolls. And a little bit of blood, thrown in for good measure.
The books? OH, THERE ARE VOODOO MANUALS. Seriously, there's African Potions and Recipes for Love and Authentic Haitian Voodoo for Health and Wellness. The chanting? It's more like something a bunch of Wiccan priestesses would chant under a full moon:
Ancient Priestesses of the light,FUCKING SERIOUSLY? IT RHYMES?
Bestow knowledge clear, true, and bright
Grant me power and second sight
As I move through darkness of night.
The quasi-Voodoo people in this book are the leaders of the Guild, a bunch of largely white families in charge of the Voodoo religion. They have members in Europe, Asia, all over the world.
Once a secret, old-school voodoo society, the Guild of High Priests and Priestesses had become too large for them to know each and every member.No, Voodoo isn't a religion restricted to portions of the West Indies, the South, and some regions of Africa at all. *rolls eyes* The Guild are wealthy, they hold an annual Priestess' Ball where all the people get dressed up and all the women put on fancy headdresses. A large portion of the beginning of the book is devoted to the clothes shopping and planning for the annual Priestess' Ball instead of the actual fucking plot.
Fuck the whitewashing, fuck the cultural misappropriation, fuck the lack of diversity, fuck everything about this book. Way to take over a culture for your own use, Tom-Cruise-and-the-Last-Samurai style.
Want to read
November 17, 2013I have not read this book, but I think I have an issue: either the cover is white-washed, or the author took great liberties with voudon traditions.
I suppose if the character is multi-ethnic, I could see a case for it, but then the cover doesn't reflect her heritage.
If the cover is accurate, then I pose the question: with this subject matter, why isn't the tale told from the perspective of a teen of color?
Can anyone who has read this answer those questions for me about the protagonist? Thanks!
-----
UPDATE: Goodreads member Dhonielle has posted a review, where she goes into more depth on the answers to these questions. And raises new ones. You should check it out, and join the conversation!
http://www.teenwritersbloc.com/2013/1...
I suppose if the character is multi-ethnic, I could see a case for it, but then the cover doesn't reflect her heritage.
If the cover is accurate, then I pose the question: with this subject matter, why isn't the tale told from the perspective of a teen of color?
Can anyone who has read this answer those questions for me about the protagonist? Thanks!
-----
UPDATE: Goodreads member Dhonielle has posted a review, where she goes into more depth on the answers to these questions. And raises new ones. You should check it out, and join the conversation!
http://www.teenwritersbloc.com/2013/1...
Want to read
March 29, 2013There is a really big difference between VOODOO and HOODOO. I wish authors did more research. Voodoo is more like a religion and Hoodoo is more magic oriented. Research is the best thing a writer can do.
December 4, 2013
Let me give you a summary of this story.
Girl senses dangerous waves coming off a man => girl does a B&E on his house with her boyfriend => man sees her and starts stalking the girl => girl foolhardily insists on travelling alone (no doubt to assert her ‘independence') => man kidnaps girl => boyfriend rushes to the rescue => girl protests and generally tries to refuse undoing the damage done by the man => boyfriend babies her => girl saves the day => they all live happily even after
Add in a few 2 dimensional cardboard cutouts masquerading as friends and family, a lot more scenes about how great the boyfriend is, and you’ll essentially have this novel in your hands.
There were so many ‘inexplicably’s and ‘without knowing how’s during the last part of the book.
It felt like the author couldn’t be bothered to explain anything anymore and so inserted ‘inexplicably’ or ‘without knowing how’ somewhere every other sentence. During the last part, Claire inexplicably understands French and, without knowing how, gathers, commands, and asks an ancient spirit to do her bidding.
I get that 'magic' and everything, but I don't know, couldn’t a paragraph have been inserted some chapters ago to explain this apparently inexplicable phenomenon? I know I would find it hard to believe if my friend suddenly started spouting French, powerfully magical or not.
It was always ‘Claire wanted or ‘Claire didn’t want’ or ‘Claire thought’ or ‘Claire stood’ or ‘Claire sat’.
I can’t immerse myself in stories told from a third person point of view. Actually, scrap that, that’s a lie. There are some really great third person books (read: The Night Circus) which I honestly cannot imagine written any other way, but I think it’s safe to say this book is not one of them.
The ‘Claire did this’ and ‘Claire did that’ felt really juvenile after a while and only succeeded in detaching me from the story, thus, (unwittingly, I’m sure) making it easier for me to analyse and criticise its contents with an eye unclouded by emotion.
Hello? Voodoo? Where are you? Yoo hoo? Are you running away from me? Why can’t I find you?
The only reason I read this book is because the summary said it was about voodoo. Well, all I can say is, I must’ve picked the wrong book up, because there was nothing, I repeat, nothing about voodoo in this book. The only thing even remotely related to voodoo were the ‘doll babies’, and even those were glossed over using the most general of terms.
This was more like Wicca, herbology, and anything to do with the word ‘spells’ all mashed together mixed with the occasional mention of ‘voodoo’ to throw you off its scent.
Research, noun: diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts. (dictionary.com)
Diligent? Systematic? INQUIRY Hah! You’re so funny!
I’m pretty sure no research whatsoever has gone into this book. Either that, or I feel really sorry for the author. Two clicks on Google – yes, two clicks on Google – revealed only 15% people in New Orleans practiced voodoo, and I’m willing to bet the numbers are quite a bit lower over the rest of the world.
So, ‘the Guild of High Priests and Priestesses had become too large for them to know each and every member’? I don’t think so.
Moving on: faults of the protagonist – or rather, the lack of them.Mary Sue Claire is perfect. Like Bella Swan. Like Clary Fray. Like Luce Price. She is constantly told she’s pretty, and we hear constant gushing over her beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous blond hair.
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And, of course, Bella Claire wouldn’t be Bella Claire without the handsomest, cleverest, most sought-after boy pursuing her now, would she?
It makes me sick, people, it really does.
And of course, it has to end with a ‘cliffhanger’.
Oh no, Max got away! My God, I’ll be wetting my pants every night until the next book (and there’s bound to be one) comes out and the brave, beautiful Claire vanquishes the evil, nefarious villain with her knight in shining armour! Not.
In Conclusion: JUST…DON’T
I don’t know what else to say, really. I’ve already exhausted my rampage on Crewel, and I’m not particularly inclined to try and think of more things I hate about this book. So that’s the end of my review, I guess. I’ll leave with these parting words to you:
DON’T, JUST DON’T. DON’T READ IT FOR A LAUGH, AS A DARE, OR EVEN JUST SO YOU CAN RANT ABOUT IT. TO BORROW THE AUTHOR’S FAVOUITE WORD: EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS JUST TOO INEXPLICABLY BAD.
March 30, 2025
You know what? I liked this one.
I read a bunch of reviews and the general opinion seemed to be "meh", so again...I was worried going into it. But, I was just looking for a book that kept me engaged and I could relax while reading. This was it.
It was a very typical YA read, but I don't mind that. YA female lead has magical powers and is stronger than she believes. Cute boy toy romantic love interest who is there for her. Bad guys with a secret back story. Family secrets. All the GOOD stuff, those tropes are there and it was lovely.
Is the voodoo super deep voodoo? No. It's fairly simple magic, but that didn't hurt my feelings.
I honestly enjoyed the heck out of this book and kind of wanted a second. For pure enjoyment, it's great. There's plot holes, there's whitewashing, but it the writing style and plot wasn't bad. Michelle Zink is someone that I'll be looking out for, since I did really enjoy how her writing flows in the book.
Three out of five stars.
I read a bunch of reviews and the general opinion seemed to be "meh", so again...I was worried going into it. But, I was just looking for a book that kept me engaged and I could relax while reading. This was it.
It was a very typical YA read, but I don't mind that. YA female lead has magical powers and is stronger than she believes. Cute boy toy romantic love interest who is there for her. Bad guys with a secret back story. Family secrets. All the GOOD stuff, those tropes are there and it was lovely.
Is the voodoo super deep voodoo? No. It's fairly simple magic, but that didn't hurt my feelings.
I honestly enjoyed the heck out of this book and kind of wanted a second. For pure enjoyment, it's great. There's plot holes, there's whitewashing, but it the writing style and plot wasn't bad. Michelle Zink is someone that I'll be looking out for, since I did really enjoy how her writing flows in the book.
Three out of five stars.
December 23, 2013
Other readers' claims about whitewashing and holes in the plot are spot on.
December 9, 2013
Whitewashing for pre-teens: a how-to guide.
November 6, 2014
This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!
You’d think a story about a secret voodoo society set in New Orleans would be the perfect back drop for diversity, but alas, it lacks depth. I feel like I’ve just read a story with cardboard cut out characters following a predictable, uninteresting plot that never hits a climax.
I wanted so much more out of This Wicked Game, more about the Voodoo, religious intent or more about magic and its ingredients. Even more about the amazing world of New Orleans would have done. Voodoo is a fanatical religion with African roots, but in the Wicked Game, all you get are white characters with no back story. Would it have killed to have a bit of diversity in a place that is filled with it, instead of making it the same old story superimposed over a Voodoo background?
The book was mainly focused on a loose mystery behind what the deadly ingredient was being used for and then foiling their plans, but the culprits were easily found out and there was no surprise whatsoever. I always have a problem with unbelievable plots where the teenagers don’t involve their parents in dangerous threats.
Usually I’d cheer at YA stories that aren’t centered on the romance, but Claire and Xander getting together before the events of the book was a convenient way to skip any development on that end. Now I know why most YA books tend to lean towards the romance, because at least that’s something, right?
Now let’s talk about Claire. She’s your typical boring protagonist who doesn’t think before she acts. After meeting Eugenia, a threatening character who wants to purchase a deadly, rare ingredient used for curses, what does she do? She breaks into her home to find more information with her boyfriend. She continues doing stupid things throughout the book, and I felt no connection to her whatsoever.
That being said, the writing was really succinct and action-oriented, easily read. There was a lot of telling instead of showing, with Claire and her friends talking it out and coming to conclusions about the Voodoo enemy.
This Wicked Game was a book that lacks depth all the way through. There is absolutely no diversity when it comes to the Voodoo Society in New Orleans, a place that is filled with a rich culture and history. The characters are flat and boring, and the plot even more so. It had so much more potential, which is disappointing, really.
I keep on getting this book confused with Wicked Games by Sean Olin, what is with two YA books with really similar titles being released around the same time?
You’d think a story about a secret voodoo society set in New Orleans would be the perfect back drop for diversity, but alas, it lacks depth. I feel like I’ve just read a story with cardboard cut out characters following a predictable, uninteresting plot that never hits a climax.
I wanted so much more out of This Wicked Game, more about the Voodoo, religious intent or more about magic and its ingredients. Even more about the amazing world of New Orleans would have done. Voodoo is a fanatical religion with African roots, but in the Wicked Game, all you get are white characters with no back story. Would it have killed to have a bit of diversity in a place that is filled with it, instead of making it the same old story superimposed over a Voodoo background?
The book was mainly focused on a loose mystery behind what the deadly ingredient was being used for and then foiling their plans, but the culprits were easily found out and there was no surprise whatsoever. I always have a problem with unbelievable plots where the teenagers don’t involve their parents in dangerous threats.
Usually I’d cheer at YA stories that aren’t centered on the romance, but Claire and Xander getting together before the events of the book was a convenient way to skip any development on that end. Now I know why most YA books tend to lean towards the romance, because at least that’s something, right?
Now let’s talk about Claire. She’s your typical boring protagonist who doesn’t think before she acts. After meeting Eugenia, a threatening character who wants to purchase a deadly, rare ingredient used for curses, what does she do? She breaks into her home to find more information with her boyfriend. She continues doing stupid things throughout the book, and I felt no connection to her whatsoever.
That being said, the writing was really succinct and action-oriented, easily read. There was a lot of telling instead of showing, with Claire and her friends talking it out and coming to conclusions about the Voodoo enemy.
This Wicked Game was a book that lacks depth all the way through. There is absolutely no diversity when it comes to the Voodoo Society in New Orleans, a place that is filled with a rich culture and history. The characters are flat and boring, and the plot even more so. It had so much more potential, which is disappointing, really.
I keep on getting this book confused with Wicked Games by Sean Olin, what is with two YA books with really similar titles being released around the same time?
November 25, 2013
You can also read this review on my blog
In short: This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink had the potential to be original and special, but instead was an insipid, whitewashed version of what it could have been.
One mention of voodoo was all it took to have me chomping at the bit for This Wicked Game. The history and culture of voodoo is SO intriguing to me and I was curious to read a YA story revolving around it. To say I was disappointed with This Wicked Game is a bit of an understatement. As far as I can tell, the subject of voodoo is wide open in YA and thus so much can be done with it to create an original and provocative story. This potential was squandered in This Wicked Game.
The protagonist, Claire, somehow managed to be both a Mary Sue and TSTL. She decides to play teen detective without approaching her parents or any of the other higher-ups in the Guild and miraculously and inexplicably makes it through dangerous circumstances she never thinks through. The other characters are similarly two-dimensional and bland. There is nothing in This Wicked Game for romance-lovers either: Claire's relationship with Xander develops before the start of the story and is completely lacking in tension or passion.
But even the flat characters and romance were not as hard to take as the lifeless plot and setting. I was excited to read a book set in New Orleans, but very little effort was put into bringing such a unique and rich cultural centre to life. It could have been any other city. And I'm frankly at a loss as to how the traditional African voodoo culture could have possibly been translated to rich, white families in control of the "voodoo business." Way to take away all the culture and essence out of voodoo! I wanted to see traditional raw and gritty voodoo, not this whitewashed, insipid counterpart.
Though I found fault with much of This Wicked Game, it is to Michelle Zink's credit that she at least wrote a fast-paced plot with easy language that made the reading experience fly by. Without that, the dull story surely would have bored me to tears long before the ending. But even then the plot was far beyond saving. By far the biggest issue I have with This Wicked Game was that it had the potential to be fresh and special, but instead was a dummed-down, whitewashed version of what it could have been. Very disappointed.
In short: This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink had the potential to be original and special, but instead was an insipid, whitewashed version of what it could have been.
One mention of voodoo was all it took to have me chomping at the bit for This Wicked Game. The history and culture of voodoo is SO intriguing to me and I was curious to read a YA story revolving around it. To say I was disappointed with This Wicked Game is a bit of an understatement. As far as I can tell, the subject of voodoo is wide open in YA and thus so much can be done with it to create an original and provocative story. This potential was squandered in This Wicked Game.
The protagonist, Claire, somehow managed to be both a Mary Sue and TSTL. She decides to play teen detective without approaching her parents or any of the other higher-ups in the Guild and miraculously and inexplicably makes it through dangerous circumstances she never thinks through. The other characters are similarly two-dimensional and bland. There is nothing in This Wicked Game for romance-lovers either: Claire's relationship with Xander develops before the start of the story and is completely lacking in tension or passion.
But even the flat characters and romance were not as hard to take as the lifeless plot and setting. I was excited to read a book set in New Orleans, but very little effort was put into bringing such a unique and rich cultural centre to life. It could have been any other city. And I'm frankly at a loss as to how the traditional African voodoo culture could have possibly been translated to rich, white families in control of the "voodoo business." Way to take away all the culture and essence out of voodoo! I wanted to see traditional raw and gritty voodoo, not this whitewashed, insipid counterpart.
Though I found fault with much of This Wicked Game, it is to Michelle Zink's credit that she at least wrote a fast-paced plot with easy language that made the reading experience fly by. Without that, the dull story surely would have bored me to tears long before the ending. But even then the plot was far beyond saving. By far the biggest issue I have with This Wicked Game was that it had the potential to be fresh and special, but instead was a dummed-down, whitewashed version of what it could have been. Very disappointed.
May 10, 2014
I was intrigued by a YA book involving Voodoo, thought it might be fun and different than what's been out recently. Instead, it was the most white-washed, racist, offensive book. Near the very beginning of the book we discover the main character, Claire, is a descendant of Marie Leveau. When I read that I was angry that the girl on the cover is very white. (Interjection: I realize I should have put together book about Voodoo in New Orleans + white girl on cover = problem much faster). At first I blamed the publishers for yet another example of putting a white girl on the cover of a book about (I assumed) a POC. Ha, it turns out to be so much worse. The author obviously envisioned Claire as a white person, describing her blond hair several times. I still cannot wrap my head around how Ms. Zink could simultaneously make Claire a descendant of Marie Leveau and also a blonde white girl. What?!?! Also, for good measure, the author says Claire's mother was a poor Bayou priestess. Because when I hear that description, I think, white person. COME ON!!! This whole book is suppose to be about a group of people, descendants of New Orleans Voodoo practitioners, and most of them are white! Those that maybe aren't white are, 'exotic'. Ugh. If you are writing a book set in a)New Orleans and b)about the descendants of Voodoo practitioners; you are writing a book about black people!!! I freely admit I know next to nothing about Voodoo so I can't really speak to that element; but even I know the limited descriptions of it in this book were just someone taking something they thought 'fun' and 'exotic' from TV and sprinkling it throughout her book to add color (ha, that's ironic). In short this book is a gross example of white-washing and cultural misappropriation and it is really too bad because an actual well-researched, well-written book about Voodoo in New Orleans could be awesome.
June 25, 2014
Hey! Want to read something about life in post-Katrina NOLA? How about a secret international society of voodoo practitioners? Count me in! I know this is YA, but maybe I can teach it....
And then I read this wreck of a book. Another reviewer used the term "whitewashed," which is accurate on so many levels.
There's no mention of race in the book, except the comment about the love interest's caramel skin. Sigh. They DO visit Treme, but they're scared...never been there, scary black people (did I mention the descendant of Marie Laveau is BLONDE?!), etc. And forget about ANY sense of NOLA's allure, it's own wickedness. A line about Spanish moss and one tiny scene in a graveyard won't cut it. And there's nothing truly about voodoo in this book. It coulda been a contendah, but it failed to get in the ring.
And then I read this wreck of a book. Another reviewer used the term "whitewashed," which is accurate on so many levels.
There's no mention of race in the book, except the comment about the love interest's caramel skin. Sigh. They DO visit Treme, but they're scared...never been there, scary black people (did I mention the descendant of Marie Laveau is BLONDE?!), etc. And forget about ANY sense of NOLA's allure, it's own wickedness. A line about Spanish moss and one tiny scene in a graveyard won't cut it. And there's nothing truly about voodoo in this book. It coulda been a contendah, but it failed to get in the ring.
July 25, 2016
On the whole, an engaging, if somewhat rote teen-romance-adventure. The characters lack depth, but the focus on voudoun is an interesting twist. Unfortunately, the portrayal of the magical aspects/ religious beliefs are just as superficial as the characters, so it's hard to be enthusiastic.
April 13, 2017
I fought to give this book a chance, because I think there's a trend going on with the fans of the YA genre where if a white person writes a poc representative book, then it's automatically shut down, harshly criticized, given low star ratings even before its out, etc. I like to believe representation can come from anywhere, so long as it's not appropriated. Sadly, I have been proven wrong in that belief once again.
Let me start with the main character because those are the ones who stick the most, in my case.
Claire is lifeless. I can't find a better word for her. All we read of her narrative is her doing things in a mechanical (she did this, she did that), and not actually thinking about anything, or expressing any feelings.
Most of the characters are like that, no reason, no purpose, no feeling. The only character that gave me something was Eddie but first of all, he wasn't even a very prominent character and second, by the point he showed up I already felt this book was giving me nothing. Max doesn't even get to voice his reasoning, his feelings, nothing. He's reduced to a two-dimensional being of blandness, as they all are. The characters are no more than lines in a book, and for someone who looks for a connection when I read, that's something I really disliked.
I think this all comes down to writing, which hey, it's a continuous and infinite process. Many things come to mind. For one, the poc characters are constantly described as exotic. This has been a continuous struggle of poc authors and readers, who almost have to beg their white colleagues not to use this word, as it is dehumanizing (I can understand this. That's a word we usually use for tigers and other species we have never seen before. It's equating our equals to animals) and just offensive. Ignorant as we are, we still are not listening.
Then, the wording on some of the scenes makes it seem like the author condones to some ideas that are probably just a misconception because of how the writing is phrased.
The plot itself isn't bad, but it has characteristics that made it, not exactly bad but, doubtful and uninteresting.
Firstly, for a great part of the book nothing happens and the entire narrative is about Xander, and how Claire's romance with Xander is forbidden. By the way, the reasoning for this escaped me. Oh, dear forbidden white-people love, why arth thou....arth? It maketh no sense. Even more, the characters were constantly dumbed down to such extremes that ultimately made the entire plot seem almost reaching.
There was one moment where I thought this relationship might come to mean something to me and it was this one:
This is an extremely important concept that needs to be passed around young girls. Sadly, this quote ended up not being corroborated by much of Xander's actions. Xander acts like a controlling ass, always pulling on Claire's arm without permission (lack of permission is abuse, by the way. Here's one of the moments where Xander actually hurts Claire),
always acting like she can't do things on her own, and the book constantly puts Claire on the sidelines: she's happy to stand by and let Xander act like a stereotypical (yes. No quotation marks.) knight-in-shining-armor-man-saviour-of-the-lady-barf-I-puked.
There's this quote that, besides managing to give me nausea, also managed to illustrate my point perfectly:
The classical boys will be boys, so let's let them act like entitle misogynist mindless idiots. No, thanks, I'd rather not push the stick further up Xander's ass, I'm afraid it might touch his stomach. I'd rather see Claire saying "hey amigo, I'm the one who had the idea, I'm the one pushing for some answers, this is a partnership or nothing". Where's that fire? Not going to downplay it: this quote makes me angry. It's time we stop teaching young people that misogyny is normal, and to mask it as "chivalry", a notion so outdated it has created a skin of bacteria over it and that has come to mean a meaningless ideal.
Girls, having your boyfriend literally stopping you from doing what you want and being yourself, and take control of your actions is not chivalry. It's oppression, pure and simple. Don't let this happen.
What's most upsetting about this quote is that in the end of the book, this idea is still corroborated. Xander is constantly described as hot (other variations of attributes of his incredible diverse personality include: hottest, hotter) and that's mainly it, since he's not fleshed out as much more. Other than the arm pulling and the constant commanding. Man, what a catch.
One more thing about Claire: she's completely contrary to her family's inherited voodoo practices. Why? Who knows. There is no clear reason given as to why Claire hates voodoo so much.
So yeah. Claire doesn't believe in voodoo because everyone else does, despite being in contact with it for all of her life. Even though as far as the reader knows she's done zero effort to know about what voodoo really is, since she avoids even the mention of it at all costs, Claire is contrary to it. In general, Claire is contrary. Why? Who knows? All I was shown was that she didn't want to wear an updo because everyone else was doing it. When it comes down to it Claire is contrary for the sake of being contrary. Individuality means you do what you want regardless of everybody else, not that you sacrifice experimenting things just because everyone else is doing it and you think abiding by it will make you common.
Claire is not, however, contrary of her boyfriend, who so often grabs her forcefully to literally drag her -words used in the book- around and tells her he won't let her do things (then goes and does it).
I think there's one particular difference between worried and controlling, and Xander's character only managed to pull off the last. No matter how you read it "I don't want you in the courtyard alone." is different from "You shouldn't go there alone, let's both go". Instead, Xander tells her "I don't want you to do this" then goes and fucking do it. So clearly, he's better than Claire for some reason.
Isn't this an amazing way to write a young girl in her teens, who's growing up and developing her own sense of self? And it isn't a singular event, Claire's father also "reins in her mother's temper". For some reason, the men in this book have a say in how the women act and behave.
Another big pet peeve of mine was the fact that the cover (and the entire storyline) of the book starrs a white main character, in a book about voodoo, makes me uncomfortable. That by itself it not indicative of anything, but coupled with the grand lack of research, Claire's point of view on voodoo, and the fact that voodoo is there as no more than a mystical-looking-and-sounding thing not explored at all only screams of appropriation. Here are the facts: This story takes place in New Orleans, Lousiana, USA. It's a story about voodoo. Most of the main characters are white.
So we have a bunch of white people from the States involved in an African-rooted and our main character sees this craft as dark, sinister, and silly, for no other reason than she makes no effort to know about it (Although in the end, she uses voodoo to save them all, even though she's avoided studying and using it by any means necessary since she was a child. Remember kids, who needs effort and interest when your great-great-grandmother was super powerful?). It makes be a bit ill, to be honest.
The deeply-ingrained notions of Wester societies about African costumes are very evident here, and not at all criticized. There are, if I remember correctly, about two or three black characters and even though they're mentioned to be heiresses of long-lasting voodoo-practicing families, not one of them mentions how the people of Lousiana treated the African voodoo practitioners that lived there, and how many of them were ostracized and murdered because their customs were seen as "dark" and "unnatural". Where's the History? Where's the essence of the craft, the whys and the befores, the parts that would make this story have substance and feeling?
Even worse, the author seems to think making the characters white and not poc is actually a good thing, irreverent and different. Look at this quote:
This quote is offensive. First of all, poc (black, especially) people do have blue eyes. Blue eyes are rarer than brown eyes, but they are a different gene from skin color. One does not relate to the other. Black people have blue eyes. But what we mostly get from this (in addition to some others) quote is that the characters are white, privileged, rich young teens as contrary to the "stereotypical" (I cannot fathom how in hell the word stereotypical could be used here when every concept about voodoo in this book was, in fact, stereotypical) poc people (like people wearing Tarzan rags who bang on drums and believe rain is magic, right?) from which these practices originated. Talk about appropriation. Even more, there's a constant description of "pale faces", as if appropriating poc culture and twisting it to make it whiter deserves a pat on the back.
Then there's this part:
Newsflash white-folks: Traditional isn't a universal concept. Traditional in France, Europe isn't traditional in Massachusetts, USA. These practices are traditional. Just not to us. These practices have been around for who knows how long (not us, that's for sure) and yes, they are traditional. This knowledge is generational and ancient. Just not to us. And that's very evident throughout this entire book.
The book's biggest fault was, oddly enough (or not, considering) was voodoo. It would have been interesting to see the modern twist to an ages-old practice, but it was devoid of that.
I know zero shit about what voodoo truly is, though I'm very interested in it (hence my reading this book) its reasoning, its origins. I know it involves chanting and the conscience of some kind of spirit-world, and tiny dolls, and its basis, like most religions, is belief. After reading this book...I'm still in that position. I still know zero shit about the whys, and most of the hows, of voodoo.
There's no exploration of costumes and beliefs (other than some mentioned mixing of herbs -which by the way, amounted to nothing, as I have no idea what these herbs mean, what they're meant for, their purpose, what voodoo practitioners believe are their properties, etc), there is no explanation on the different kinds of voodoo and their differences; where they're practice, why they're practiced; where they originated; the different kinds of practicing it, if there are any, etc, etc. All of that can only lead me to believe that the author did as much research on the subject as I did. This book gives me what Hollywood has been continuously giving me (and what I'm continuously bored by): voodoo is about a bunch of people dancing along to drums.
The author mentions "old-school voodoo rituals" and things of the sort, but I'm not shown them. I'm on a boat in a different land and my guide is saying "just watch the sky and enjoy the ride" as the boat shakes and stirs and I hear music but can't see where it comes from. I know something's there but I'm not seeing shit. So is it there? Not to me, I'm only watching the sky, hoping for beautiful things.
It could be argued that the lack of information about this practice aims to have the reader research voodoo deeper, but not only is there a lack of information, there seem to be some words thrown in there that were included just for the sake of alluding to a word related to voodoo but which the author gives no insight about. Like: hey, I read this out of a couple of wikipedia pages, but can't go into depth about it because I truly haven't researched its essence much.
I have so many questions. What's a Hougan priest, and what exactly is their status in the voodoo community? Do all rituals require a Hougan priest and a priestess (I hardly remember the name, it was mentioned and explained that often)? Why are most of the characters white? Are loas a representation of human desires or is voodoo really about believing in another world with real spirits, akin to ghosts? Where did it originate?
Research seems to me hugely lacking in this book.
A major no-no that was the last straw for me was the horrible, awful, ending. Throughout the entire book, Xander is painted as the hero, even though Claire is supposed to be our main character. So we have a young girl main character whose entire spectrum of emotion (a spectrum that borders the "nil" side) is concentrated on this one bland, boring guy with cute biceps, and in the end he's the knight in shining armor who literally saves her life, from a situation she could not get herself out of otherwise. Barf, barf, pass.
Also whatever was it with Max being gone? No explanation as to how that happened or why he was the only one who got away.
I have more to say about it: uploading pictures to a computer doesn't make them sharper, in any way. This is impossible and a concept I didn't understand. There's also a hilarious concept in the book where voodoo is restricted to Europe and some parts of the USA. Where are the African voodoo practitioners? I about pissed myself laughing. So it originated there, but not one single person is part of this so-called Guild? Okay, Jane.
There are more points I wanted to touch, but I'm terribly tired just by having written all this and what's more, I'm hungry.
In sum, there's a lot of work to be done here.
Let me start with the main character because those are the ones who stick the most, in my case.
Claire is lifeless. I can't find a better word for her. All we read of her narrative is her doing things in a mechanical (she did this, she did that), and not actually thinking about anything, or expressing any feelings.
Most of the characters are like that, no reason, no purpose, no feeling. The only character that gave me something was Eddie but first of all, he wasn't even a very prominent character and second, by the point he showed up I already felt this book was giving me nothing. Max doesn't even get to voice his reasoning, his feelings, nothing. He's reduced to a two-dimensional being of blandness, as they all are. The characters are no more than lines in a book, and for someone who looks for a connection when I read, that's something I really disliked.
I think this all comes down to writing, which hey, it's a continuous and infinite process. Many things come to mind. For one, the poc characters are constantly described as exotic. This has been a continuous struggle of poc authors and readers, who almost have to beg their white colleagues not to use this word, as it is dehumanizing (I can understand this. That's a word we usually use for tigers and other species we have never seen before. It's equating our equals to animals) and just offensive. Ignorant as we are, we still are not listening.
Then, the wording on some of the scenes makes it seem like the author condones to some ideas that are probably just a misconception because of how the writing is phrased.
The plot itself isn't bad, but it has characteristics that made it, not exactly bad but, doubtful and uninteresting.
Firstly, for a great part of the book nothing happens and the entire narrative is about Xander, and how Claire's romance with Xander is forbidden. By the way, the reasoning for this escaped me. Oh, dear forbidden white-people love, why arth thou....arth? It maketh no sense. Even more, the characters were constantly dumbed down to such extremes that ultimately made the entire plot seem almost reaching.
There was one moment where I thought this relationship might come to mean something to me and it was this one:
But Xander was more than her boyfriend, (...). He was also her friend.
This is an extremely important concept that needs to be passed around young girls. Sadly, this quote ended up not being corroborated by much of Xander's actions. Xander acts like a controlling ass, always pulling on Claire's arm without permission (lack of permission is abuse, by the way. Here's one of the moments where Xander actually hurts Claire),
Xander took her arm and began leading her away from the house.(...) She tried to pull her arm from his grip, but he held tightly. She finally wrenched it free with an almost-painful tug.
always acting like she can't do things on her own, and the book constantly puts Claire on the sidelines: she's happy to stand by and let Xander act like a stereotypical (yes. No quotation marks.) knight-in-shining-armor-man-saviour-of-the-lady-barf-I-puked.
There's this quote that, besides managing to give me nausea, also managed to illustrate my point perfectly:
Despite the secrecy of their mission, Xander held her hand,(...)and generally doing everything possible to make Claire feel like a fragile female in need of protection. Asking him to stop wasn't an option. Xander's chivalry was bred as deeply in him as if belief in voodoo.
The classical boys will be boys, so let's let them act like entitle misogynist mindless idiots. No, thanks, I'd rather not push the stick further up Xander's ass, I'm afraid it might touch his stomach. I'd rather see Claire saying "hey amigo, I'm the one who had the idea, I'm the one pushing for some answers, this is a partnership or nothing". Where's that fire? Not going to downplay it: this quote makes me angry. It's time we stop teaching young people that misogyny is normal, and to mask it as "chivalry", a notion so outdated it has created a skin of bacteria over it and that has come to mean a meaningless ideal.
Girls, having your boyfriend literally stopping you from doing what you want and being yourself, and take control of your actions is not chivalry. It's oppression, pure and simple. Don't let this happen.
What's most upsetting about this quote is that in the end of the book, this idea is still corroborated. Xander is constantly described as hot (other variations of attributes of his incredible diverse personality include: hottest, hotter) and that's mainly it, since he's not fleshed out as much more. Other than the arm pulling and the constant commanding. Man, what a catch.
One more thing about Claire: she's completely contrary to her family's inherited voodoo practices. Why? Who knows. There is no clear reason given as to why Claire hates voodoo so much.
So yeah. Claire doesn't believe in voodoo because everyone else does, despite being in contact with it for all of her life. Even though as far as the reader knows she's done zero effort to know about what voodoo really is, since she avoids even the mention of it at all costs, Claire is contrary to it. In general, Claire is contrary. Why? Who knows? All I was shown was that she didn't want to wear an updo because everyone else was doing it. When it comes down to it Claire is contrary for the sake of being contrary. Individuality means you do what you want regardless of everybody else, not that you sacrifice experimenting things just because everyone else is doing it and you think abiding by it will make you common.
Claire is not, however, contrary of her boyfriend, who so often grabs her forcefully to literally drag her -words used in the book- around and tells her he won't let her do things (then goes and does it).
I think there's one particular difference between worried and controlling, and Xander's character only managed to pull off the last. No matter how you read it "I don't want you in the courtyard alone." is different from "You shouldn't go there alone, let's both go". Instead, Xander tells her "I don't want you to do this" then goes and fucking do it. So clearly, he's better than Claire for some reason.
Isn't this an amazing way to write a young girl in her teens, who's growing up and developing her own sense of self? And it isn't a singular event, Claire's father also "reins in her mother's temper". For some reason, the men in this book have a say in how the women act and behave.
Another big pet peeve of mine was the fact that the cover (and the entire storyline) of the book starrs a white main character, in a book about voodoo, makes me uncomfortable. That by itself it not indicative of anything, but coupled with the grand lack of research, Claire's point of view on voodoo, and the fact that voodoo is there as no more than a mystical-looking-and-sounding thing not explored at all only screams of appropriation. Here are the facts: This story takes place in New Orleans, Lousiana, USA. It's a story about voodoo. Most of the main characters are white.
So we have a bunch of white people from the States involved in an African-rooted and our main character sees this craft as dark, sinister, and silly, for no other reason than she makes no effort to know about it (Although in the end, she uses voodoo to save them all, even though she's avoided studying and using it by any means necessary since she was a child. Remember kids, who needs effort and interest when your great-great-grandmother was super powerful?). It makes be a bit ill, to be honest.
The deeply-ingrained notions of Wester societies about African costumes are very evident here, and not at all criticized. There are, if I remember correctly, about two or three black characters and even though they're mentioned to be heiresses of long-lasting voodoo-practicing families, not one of them mentions how the people of Lousiana treated the African voodoo practitioners that lived there, and how many of them were ostracized and murdered because their customs were seen as "dark" and "unnatural". Where's the History? Where's the essence of the craft, the whys and the befores, the parts that would make this story have substance and feeling?
Even worse, the author seems to think making the characters white and not poc is actually a good thing, irreverent and different. Look at this quote:
Charlie Valcour asked, his pale face and blue eyes calling to mind nothing of the stereotypical voodoo families of old.
This quote is offensive. First of all, poc (black, especially) people do have blue eyes. Blue eyes are rarer than brown eyes, but they are a different gene from skin color. One does not relate to the other. Black people have blue eyes. But what we mostly get from this (in addition to some others) quote is that the characters are white, privileged, rich young teens as contrary to the "stereotypical" (I cannot fathom how in hell the word stereotypical could be used here when every concept about voodoo in this book was, in fact, stereotypical) poc people (like people wearing Tarzan rags who bang on drums and believe rain is magic, right?) from which these practices originated. Talk about appropriation. Even more, there's a constant description of "pale faces", as if appropriating poc culture and twisting it to make it whiter deserves a pat on the back.
Then there's this part:
Suddenly, it seemed everyone was interested in alternatives to traditional medicine, traditional religion, traditional everything.
Newsflash white-folks: Traditional isn't a universal concept. Traditional in France, Europe isn't traditional in Massachusetts, USA. These practices are traditional. Just not to us. These practices have been around for who knows how long (not us, that's for sure) and yes, they are traditional. This knowledge is generational and ancient. Just not to us. And that's very evident throughout this entire book.
The book's biggest fault was, oddly enough (or not, considering) was voodoo. It would have been interesting to see the modern twist to an ages-old practice, but it was devoid of that.
I know zero shit about what voodoo truly is, though I'm very interested in it (hence my reading this book) its reasoning, its origins. I know it involves chanting and the conscience of some kind of spirit-world, and tiny dolls, and its basis, like most religions, is belief. After reading this book...I'm still in that position. I still know zero shit about the whys, and most of the hows, of voodoo.
There's no exploration of costumes and beliefs (other than some mentioned mixing of herbs -which by the way, amounted to nothing, as I have no idea what these herbs mean, what they're meant for, their purpose, what voodoo practitioners believe are their properties, etc), there is no explanation on the different kinds of voodoo and their differences; where they're practice, why they're practiced; where they originated; the different kinds of practicing it, if there are any, etc, etc. All of that can only lead me to believe that the author did as much research on the subject as I did. This book gives me what Hollywood has been continuously giving me (and what I'm continuously bored by): voodoo is about a bunch of people dancing along to drums.
The author mentions "old-school voodoo rituals" and things of the sort, but I'm not shown them. I'm on a boat in a different land and my guide is saying "just watch the sky and enjoy the ride" as the boat shakes and stirs and I hear music but can't see where it comes from. I know something's there but I'm not seeing shit. So is it there? Not to me, I'm only watching the sky, hoping for beautiful things.
It could be argued that the lack of information about this practice aims to have the reader research voodoo deeper, but not only is there a lack of information, there seem to be some words thrown in there that were included just for the sake of alluding to a word related to voodoo but which the author gives no insight about. Like: hey, I read this out of a couple of wikipedia pages, but can't go into depth about it because I truly haven't researched its essence much.
I have so many questions. What's a Hougan priest, and what exactly is their status in the voodoo community? Do all rituals require a Hougan priest and a priestess (I hardly remember the name, it was mentioned and explained that often)? Why are most of the characters white? Are loas a representation of human desires or is voodoo really about believing in another world with real spirits, akin to ghosts? Where did it originate?
Research seems to me hugely lacking in this book.
A major no-no that was the last straw for me was the horrible, awful, ending. Throughout the entire book, Xander is painted as the hero, even though Claire is supposed to be our main character. So we have a young girl main character whose entire spectrum of emotion (a spectrum that borders the "nil" side) is concentrated on this one bland, boring guy with cute biceps, and in the end he's the knight in shining armor who literally saves her life, from a situation she could not get herself out of otherwise. Barf, barf, pass.
Also whatever was it with Max being gone? No explanation as to how that happened or why he was the only one who got away.
I have more to say about it: uploading pictures to a computer doesn't make them sharper, in any way. This is impossible and a concept I didn't understand. There's also a hilarious concept in the book where voodoo is restricted to Europe and some parts of the USA. Where are the African voodoo practitioners? I about pissed myself laughing. So it originated there, but not one single person is part of this so-called Guild? Okay, Jane.
There are more points I wanted to touch, but I'm terribly tired just by having written all this and what's more, I'm hungry.
In sum, there's a lot of work to be done here.
September 15, 2016
This Wicked Game was mediocre. The whole voodoo thing wasn't really there. I thought the idea of it was really cool, but I wasn't really fond of Claire she was the sort of 'special-snowflake' character I don't really like, who thinks they can do everything on their own and then has to be saved by the love interest (who I didn't really care for either).
The whole lack of plot and character development aside, This Wicked Game was completely white-washed, and from other readers reviews, did not even properly use the term 'voodoo'.
Overall, This Wicked Game had potential as an interesting story but was instead filled with boring, white-washed characters and a sub-par plot.
The whole lack of plot and character development aside, This Wicked Game was completely white-washed, and from other readers reviews, did not even properly use the term 'voodoo'.
Overall, This Wicked Game had potential as an interesting story but was instead filled with boring, white-washed characters and a sub-par plot.
January 14, 2014
I was excited about the premise of this book. However, knowing quite a bit about this subject, I was disappointed at the liberties and inaccuracies the author took with this book. The backstory could use more developing. I expected more.
June 27, 2023
I really enjoyed this one! I loved the setting (I’m a sucker for books set in New Orleans), and the voodoo was such a cool part!
Claire was a good character. Her disbelief was strong, but she ended up turning to voodoo in her quest for answers. I liked seeing her struggle with her emotions regarding the craft, and I felt like it made her even more realistic. I also really liked her relationship with Xander. They were sweet together, and I liked that they were already a solid couple when the story picked up.
The writing style was so easy to get into, and the pace of the story was quick. I was flying through this one, and I really enjoyed it.
Claire was a good character. Her disbelief was strong, but she ended up turning to voodoo in her quest for answers. I liked seeing her struggle with her emotions regarding the craft, and I felt like it made her even more realistic. I also really liked her relationship with Xander. They were sweet together, and I liked that they were already a solid couple when the story picked up.
The writing style was so easy to get into, and the pace of the story was quick. I was flying through this one, and I really enjoyed it.
March 24, 2014
I can't believe I'm saying this but this wasn't good. I know, it's about Voodoo, and darkness and curses and voodoo dolls and all those wonderful stuff that is just right up my alley. I love reading about it. And since it's set in New Orleans, the same as Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton, that though is more Greek Mythology than Voodoo, it's kind of a mixed one that I loved. I so wanted to love this one just the same...and didn't.
I have no clue where I'm even going to start on this. I was beyond disappointed, and there were so many little things that could have made it better if other little things hadn't annoyed me so much. If I love it, I have so much to say, if I hate it, I have so much to say.
This is middle ground and I hate middle ground. It wouldn't have been if some elements had brought it back, but I'm defeated because I was so disappointed with This Wicked Game, that I'd even go as far to say it is my most disappointed book of last year. There, I said it.
Written in third person, it focuses on Claire and my problem with the writing was not in fact the perspective or person, but the fact that it didn't have a voice, that style of writing still has a voice, when it's done well. Like in Antigoddess by Kendare Blake Cassandra and Athena had different voices while being written into third, you could tell them apart, and they both had their own flare. Claire, however does not. Or if she does, she's pretty bland. So maybe it's not the writing at all but the fact that Claire's a bore? I don't know, but the constant use of names when talking, annoyed me. Also, you knew Claire was speaking, who she was speaking to, so why do we need a repeat? Maybe I'm just being picky...but it was also after they say they're going to do something, and then you're told, Claire and Xander walked down the road and Xander took Claires hand, blah blah (that was made up, by the way, but you get the idea.) There wasn't much she or he to break it up, but then he and she can get annoying too, so you have to have balance, and there was no balance.
It's also pretty stop and start, it doesn't flow through sentences to the next, and even the interactions between characters, even one Claire's supposed to be in love with and dating, Xander, their words and actions are stiff and awkward, not the familiarity or comfort you'd think you'd get from them.
The first half was a bunch of talking and no action, and within that talking and messing around there was too much description on movements, who was where in a car, and a bunch of useless information that you didn't really need, and considering the book is 350 pages, only two thirds of it is probably an actual story. Or didn't include yoga (totally exaggerating). This is supposed to be about Voodoo, and I wanted to learn about Voodoo, so why are we reading about Claire going to Yoga, more than once? I wanted to learn about the Craft, but you know what I learnt? Nothing. In fact, the voodoo side of things was pretty vague, there wasn't enough to make it believable, we had ingredients and some information on certain incantations etc, but since its in third person, it had a great opportunity to use that. I know Claire's a non-believer, and she doesn't know and doesn't want to know about the Craft, but it wasn't in first person.
Claire herself, as I said above, is bland, and kind of a bitch, don't get me wrong, she could have been a lot worse, but she pretty much automatically disliked some of the other characters because she didn't know them...and she didn't want to really get to know them, basically, and anything to do with Voodoo. She has all these morals about it, yet when she needs to find out about something, what does she do? She practices! Yup. Morals out the door, ladies and gentleman. Oh, and Xander, the guy she dating? She's been dating him a year in secret, and doesn't want to tell anybody about them, even though Xander does, and she loves him. In the end, it wasn't really a secret anyway because basically everybody knew, tada! And Rock Paper and Scissors have more chemistry than these two.
The whole plot was predictable. No, for real. The only one that didn't know was Claire herself, which literally wanted me to hit her with the damn book. Right in front of your eyes, I mean, I know she's supposed to be kept in the dark, but uh, when uh, hello?
I mean, even the other characters got it before her, and nice to clue her in about it guys, really.
This Wicked Game was disappointing, tiring, and while the topic was entirely fascinating, there wasn't enough it knead the rest of it out.
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Review originally posted on Studio Reads
I have no clue where I'm even going to start on this. I was beyond disappointed, and there were so many little things that could have made it better if other little things hadn't annoyed me so much. If I love it, I have so much to say, if I hate it, I have so much to say.
This is middle ground and I hate middle ground. It wouldn't have been if some elements had brought it back, but I'm defeated because I was so disappointed with This Wicked Game, that I'd even go as far to say it is my most disappointed book of last year. There, I said it.
Written in third person, it focuses on Claire and my problem with the writing was not in fact the perspective or person, but the fact that it didn't have a voice, that style of writing still has a voice, when it's done well. Like in Antigoddess by Kendare Blake Cassandra and Athena had different voices while being written into third, you could tell them apart, and they both had their own flare. Claire, however does not. Or if she does, she's pretty bland. So maybe it's not the writing at all but the fact that Claire's a bore? I don't know, but the constant use of names when talking, annoyed me. Also, you knew Claire was speaking, who she was speaking to, so why do we need a repeat? Maybe I'm just being picky...but it was also after they say they're going to do something, and then you're told, Claire and Xander walked down the road and Xander took Claires hand, blah blah (that was made up, by the way, but you get the idea.) There wasn't much she or he to break it up, but then he and she can get annoying too, so you have to have balance, and there was no balance.
It's also pretty stop and start, it doesn't flow through sentences to the next, and even the interactions between characters, even one Claire's supposed to be in love with and dating, Xander, their words and actions are stiff and awkward, not the familiarity or comfort you'd think you'd get from them.
The first half was a bunch of talking and no action, and within that talking and messing around there was too much description on movements, who was where in a car, and a bunch of useless information that you didn't really need, and considering the book is 350 pages, only two thirds of it is probably an actual story. Or didn't include yoga (totally exaggerating). This is supposed to be about Voodoo, and I wanted to learn about Voodoo, so why are we reading about Claire going to Yoga, more than once? I wanted to learn about the Craft, but you know what I learnt? Nothing. In fact, the voodoo side of things was pretty vague, there wasn't enough to make it believable, we had ingredients and some information on certain incantations etc, but since its in third person, it had a great opportunity to use that. I know Claire's a non-believer, and she doesn't know and doesn't want to know about the Craft, but it wasn't in first person.
Claire herself, as I said above, is bland, and kind of a bitch, don't get me wrong, she could have been a lot worse, but she pretty much automatically disliked some of the other characters because she didn't know them...and she didn't want to really get to know them, basically, and anything to do with Voodoo. She has all these morals about it, yet when she needs to find out about something, what does she do? She practices! Yup. Morals out the door, ladies and gentleman. Oh, and Xander, the guy she dating? She's been dating him a year in secret, and doesn't want to tell anybody about them, even though Xander does, and she loves him. In the end, it wasn't really a secret anyway because basically everybody knew, tada! And Rock Paper and Scissors have more chemistry than these two.
The whole plot was predictable. No, for real. The only one that didn't know was Claire herself, which literally wanted me to hit her with the damn book. Right in front of your eyes, I mean, I know she's supposed to be kept in the dark, but uh, when uh, hello?
I mean, even the other characters got it before her, and nice to clue her in about it guys, really.
This Wicked Game was disappointing, tiring, and while the topic was entirely fascinating, there wasn't enough it knead the rest of it out.
-----
Review originally posted on Studio Reads
December 13, 2018
DNF at p. 150
October 25, 2013
Great book. Something fresh in the paranormal world, voodoo, New Orleans , drama, romance how can you not fall in love?!
Claire is a descendant of the most powerful voodoo queen but she got nothing. She doesn't want anything to do with it, she just wants to be normal but normal is overrated. She isn't really an outsider, she puts herself outside of everyone else. But she is willing to do what it takes to protect her family and friends. Add in Xander who she loves but is keeping secret, and she is a hot mess at times.
Strangers come to town and want black market items. The elders aren't doing much and Claire is stepping up when you least expect it. She wants everyone safe, yes she doesn't practice but that doesn't mean she won't do it if she has too. Hr and her friends start gathering the information and are willing to do what it takes. Things take a quick turn to danger.
New Orleans heat and humidity get to you,all you can think about is being there and sweating along with them rest of them. New Orleans comes alive in this book, and I can't wait to get there to see it for myself. Michelle writes another addicting, fast read.
Claire is a descendant of the most powerful voodoo queen but she got nothing. She doesn't want anything to do with it, she just wants to be normal but normal is overrated. She isn't really an outsider, she puts herself outside of everyone else. But she is willing to do what it takes to protect her family and friends. Add in Xander who she loves but is keeping secret, and she is a hot mess at times.
Strangers come to town and want black market items. The elders aren't doing much and Claire is stepping up when you least expect it. She wants everyone safe, yes she doesn't practice but that doesn't mean she won't do it if she has too. Hr and her friends start gathering the information and are willing to do what it takes. Things take a quick turn to danger.
New Orleans heat and humidity get to you,all you can think about is being there and sweating along with them rest of them. New Orleans comes alive in this book, and I can't wait to get there to see it for myself. Michelle writes another addicting, fast read.
May 27, 2015
Loved it!!! Loved the fact that this was about a topic that hasn't really been done in teen fiction. I might be biased since I like voodoo and it's culture, but it was a great book. The romance in it is good, typical teen tensions and questioning of things. The friendships that develop are fun to watch, considering the main character is apprehensive about most of the people in her life. She grows in the book as well. Overall it's a great story, and it was left open to have a sequel, which I will not complain if that happens. I wish there were more books that explored this topic and the history behind it all. I did find it slightly annoying that the characters were kind of oblivious to some things as they discovered them, like it was on the tip of their tongues but never quite getting there. But that's just me, since I figure it out I think the characters should as well. Otherwise I have no complaints about this book at all.
June 20, 2014
I started to read this book because the cover caught my attention and I haven't really read much on voodoo inspired stories. I got a few chapters in and gave up. Typical supernatural YA story line. I've read enough of those.
First you have the standard soon-to-be-of-age main character who rebels against the family legacy/craft/talents/magic/what have you.
Second, you have the group of elders who run the show which has the typical outcast member, the bitch in charge, and the look down on the youngins attitude.
Third, let's not forget the typical dance/ball where something will most definitely go wrong.
Let's not forget that the young characters decided to 'solve' a mystery on their own in the typical B&E of the 'bad' guy, half ass stake outs, etc, etc, etc, before they screw up big time.
Yeah, read enough of these stories. Next....
First you have the standard soon-to-be-of-age main character who rebels against the family legacy/craft/talents/magic/what have you.
Second, you have the group of elders who run the show which has the typical outcast member, the bitch in charge, and the look down on the youngins attitude.
Third, let's not forget the typical dance/ball where something will most definitely go wrong.
Let's not forget that the young characters decided to 'solve' a mystery on their own in the typical B&E of the 'bad' guy, half ass stake outs, etc, etc, etc, before they screw up big time.
Yeah, read enough of these stories. Next....
January 7, 2017
I've pretty much loved every book Michelle Zink has published! She is a master writer and I love it! This book was a little different from her other books but it still had a good plot. I'm happy with how everything turned out, Xander and Claire being together. How max and Eugenia were the parents of Elisabeta. I kind of wanted to know more about Elisabeta and her disease that rocked the family. And also more about Sorina, she was a big part of the letters and still at the end we don't know who she was or what she did to be expelled from the Guild.
All in all though, I really enjoyed the book!
All in all though, I really enjoyed the book!
May 17, 2014
I don't have much to say. I really enjoyed the elements of magic and voodoo. My favorite thing about the book was the New Orleans setting. As a huge fan of The Originals and Vampire Diaries TV shows, I quite enjoyed this setting. The story will grip you from the first chapter and goes straight into the action.
Overall, a short fun story to read. I gave it four stars because I expected a grander resolution.
I enjoy Zink's first person perspective more than the third person. However, the third person was quite enjoyable.
Overall, a short fun story to read. I gave it four stars because I expected a grander resolution.
I enjoy Zink's first person perspective more than the third person. However, the third person was quite enjoyable.
May 23, 2013
I love the idea of a MC with voodoo heritage being a non-believer and yet, still running the family store.
Xander is quite swoony and there are some really excellent secondary characters. Some of Claire's actions are annoying, but I tried not to let them bug me too much.
Overall, it was very quick read that was quite enjoyable.
Xander is quite swoony and there are some really excellent secondary characters. Some of Claire's actions are annoying, but I tried not to let them bug me too much.
Overall, it was very quick read that was quite enjoyable.
September 11, 2020
Struggling to finish this book... it’s super boring, in my opinion. The girl on the cover is white, which is also a little confusing given the setting and general subject of the book. Not a huge fan, I don’t even think I’m going to finish it, even though I feel bad that I’ve wasted my time trying to get through it.
June 18, 2016
This book was pretty terrible, but I like laughing at it.
November 30, 2013
It was...fine. Not bad. I finished maybe ten minutes ago and I can't remember the MC's name. A much whiter cast than I would expect for a book about voodoo set in New Orleans.
November 6, 2014
I don't get why everybody is hating on this book. It was fun and fast-paced.
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