Voodoo Season

The Marie Laveau Mystery #1

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Voodoo Season revisits the mystical landscape of New Orleans and its most famous Voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau that Jewell Parker Rhodes introduced us to in her previous novel Voodoo Dreams. This time, the award-winning author of historical fiction sets the story in the here and now.

Meet Marie Levant. The great-great granddaughter of the beloved, tantalizing Marie Laveau, she is compelled by unseen forces to leave her medical career in Chicago behind and return to her roots. But once she arrives in New Orleans, Marie is both seduced and horrified by this mysterious landscape whose slave-holding past merges with the spoils of the twenty-first century. A place where the Quadroon Balls of yesterday are a present reality, and women of color are still being abused and, even more horrifying, rendered "undead." Yet through it all, Marie can't help but sense that she's lived here before . . . and that maybe there's more to this city's history and her own.

With Voodoo Season, Rhodes once again presents her legions of fans with a heroine of authentic power and an alluring, unforgettable read.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Audiobook, African American, Paranormal

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2005

About the author

Jewell Parker Rhodes has always loved reading and writing stories. Born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh, she was a voracious reader as a child. She began college as a dance major, but when she discovered there were novels by African Americans, she knew she wanted to be an author. She wrote six novels for adults, two writing guides, and a memoir, but writing for children remained her dream.

Now she is the author of eleven books for youth including the New York Times bestsellers Will's Race for Home, Ghost Boys and Black Brother, Black Brother. Her other books include Soul Step, Treasure Island: Runaway Gold, Paradise on Fire, Towers Falling, and the Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic. She has also published six adult novels, two writing guides, and a memoir.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and the Octavia E. Butler Award.

When she’s not writing, she’s visiting schools to talk about her books with the kids who read them, or teaching writing at Arizona State University, where she is the Piper Endowed Chair and Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

Reviews

[dianne b. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story devoid of subtlety about a descendant of Marie Laveau learning about her power as a voodooienne - power passed to females born with cauls. The evil was too simple and the good too dependent on deus ex machina; or, in this case, loas ex machina.

I did appreciate the author’s repeated attempts to clarify the fact that voodoo / voudon is about kindness and healing, about honoring one’s ancestors. It has nothing to do with the 1950s white media’s portrayal of “zombies” and blood. There is:
”Only one Zombi - Damballah, il grand Zombi. He has the power of faith, possession. Damballah is not evil.”

Our Marie is a young doctor working at New Orlean’s famous Charity Hospital in 2005. Charity Hospital for the Poor was founded in 1736, by a grant from Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, who died in New Orleans the year before. His last will and testament was to finance a hospital for the indigent in the colony of New Orleans from his estate. It was closed permanently in 2005 - a fact not part of this story - by the wave of greed & Disaster Capitalism that hit Louisiana, and especially New Orleans, immediately after Hurricane Katrina. The descriptions of the healthcare-deprived patients in this book - although only a couple paragraphs - broke my heart:
”A slight cough became pneumonia; a lack of insulin led to blindness, gangrene; children who stepped on a rusty nail died painfully, stricken stiff for lack of a vaccine…
Runaways, grandmothers, perfume-scented call girls were battered, bruised, cut up, locked in a sisterhood of pain.”

And now even that sorely underfunded hospital, staffed by doctors in training, is no more.

But this was not about the end-stage capitalism that is the USA, rather a lukewarm story of voodoo, and in that it was...well, tepid.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A one night read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the films The Skeleton Key and/or Eve's Bayou. The book's flow and descriptions of New Orleans makes you feel as if you're in the book watching the story unfold.

[Karin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here are all the reasons I wanted to love this book: Written by an award-winning African-American female author, I had a personal connection-having lived in New Orleans for 15 years -and love the local history and culture, I am(like the protagonist) female Emergency Room physician who trained at Charity Hospital as an outsider, and the story is "womanist" with a self-assured female who is unafraid of her sexual potency.

Despite having many good reasons to like this book, I was so thrown off by the unusual style of writing that I could never immerse myself in its world. The author utilizes italics to describe dreams, inner thoughts, mystical visions, and glimpses of history. These italics are interspersed with the real-time narrative approximately every three sentences. The effect she was trying for, I believe, was to give the reader her sense that history, magic, and alternate visions of reality coexist in one world. The effect that it had on me was utter confusion.

[Ellee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voodoo Season is a mystery set in contemporary (pre-Katrina) New Orleans, Louisiana. The author, Jewell Parker Rhodes, uses her knowledge of the voodoo religion and surrounding history and culture as the backdrop for this unusual mystery. This was a very quick read for me and I really enjoyed the colorful setting and characters. I particularly enjoyed how Rhodes described Marie's visions throughout the text. I found Marie to be a very likeable, believable character and I hope Rhodes will continue her adventures in self-discovery through the course of future novels!

I liked this well enough that I plan to go back and read earlier books of short stories and novels set in the past, which also have to do with voodoo and Louisiana mystical culture.

Recommended!

[Jeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this book. Focuses on a woman named Marie that comes to New Orleans from Chicago to be an ER doctor at charity hospital. She seems things in her dreams and has deja vu from time to time. Things start falling into place as to where she came from and who her namesake was.

[Monique · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to say 2 1/2 stars for this one...

Ummmmm....I'm not even sure what to say about this one let's just start with what I did like...I love books that are set in Louisiana and the Bayou, that setting within itself intrigues me...There's so much legend and history there, that in of itself lets me know that a book is going to be creepy as hell...And when you start getting into the premise of the sight, voodoo, and all of that good stuff well, that just makes this supernatural girl go hmmm...I need to check this out...That is what happened with this book...Came across it in the library, loved the cover and started reading....It traces the history of one of voodoo's most highly regarded priestess' Marie Laveau and traces decendents from her and the legacy she left behind on New Orleans and the religious practice of voodoo both the white magic and the black...The main character's name is Marie Levant, she's a doctor who works in the ER at an extremely run down hospital in Louisiana and is very passionate about her works and wanting to heal and help others, she relocates herself there from Chicago on no more than a hunch that this was where she needed to be...Many characters are introduced within the first 100 pgs. so it's kind of a lot of information to digest as a reader and builds a good mystery with hints of many supernatural elements at work...You don't know who's the good guy and who's bad, you just know that something isn't right in this town and that sinking feeling of dread will follow you as a reader throughout the whole book....So having said that, I think the premise this book is built on was a brilliant idea and would attract lovers of mytery and the supernatural...This is a trilogy...with one book before this one that acts as a prequel, if you will, to this trilogy...But, something about this book just didn't do it for me...Hence, the 2 1/2 rating.

What I did not like was the pacing and the amount of time it took for me to get to the end of this story, as I stated before there are a lot of characters, and more continue to be introduced as the story goes on, along with all of this there is a series of murders happening as well to young girls between 16-20 who all happened to be with child at the time of their death...Which was great, but, I felt no connection to any of the characters, including the heroine Marie, I found myself confused and disheartened as several different times in the book...

I had checked out all three books in the trilogy at once thinking, yeah, I'm going to read this whole thing, all three books, but, I returned the other two along with this one today...I'm not saying that I'll never read the other two books, but, I don't see myself reading them in the near future, I don't know maybe within the year but not the next couple of months...The story just didn't make me want to go gah!!! I've got to hurry up and read the next book, like now...And being that my currently reading list is long, I need for a book to really hook me to push me to read all sequels, etc...But, it was ok...

Verdict: if you have a peaked interest in what goes on in the religion of voodoo, the life and history of Marie Leveau, with an interesting fictional spin on what one of her decendents could be capable of they were living today in the 21st century, and books set in the bayou, than it's worth checking this book out for a suspenseful-ish (not a word, I know, I just made it up) leisure read...But, would I say run to the store and buy it? No...Check it out from you local library and see how you like it first before spending money on the trilogy...If you love this book after reading it, than buy all means invest in all books of the series...The author is an award winning author so, hopefully she won't disappoint you:)

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good book! I found the way the author combined a present-day story about present-day characters with the past to be entertaining, exciting and just a touch creepy . . . but in a good way!

Marie Levant is a doctor who has come to New Orleans from Chicago, for reasons she doesn't quite understand, except that she feels her roots and something she needs to understand can only be found there.

Working in the charity hospital, Marie seems to see, hear and feel things nobody else does. When young women start turning up "undead", Marie feels compelled to investigate, along with cop Reneaux, who Marie is attracted to, DuLac, the drunken Doctor she works with. As she delves into who is harming young women and why, along the way Marie will discover many things, some she'd rather not know, about her past and her future.

The story is well-written, intricately and cleverly crafted to weave the voodoo past of Marie Laveau into the present life Marie Levant is living. I enjoyed this story and would recommend it to anyone interested in a slightly different take on Marie Laveau.

[Vizzena Peverell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of liked this book, but it feelt like something was missing...
I wouldn't call this a cime novel because it wasn't really any "detective work". It was a lot more focus on the supernatural than the mystery. Even though I usually love books like this I felt a bit bored towards the ending. The novel wasn't that exciting after a while and I think I'd liked to learn a bit more about the characters.

[Xarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in a trilogy, though it can be read as a stand alone.

It was a fun read, though there were times it got a little over the top (even more so then the subject matter - voodoo – already is).

[kisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

IM TOTALLY NOT INTO VOODOO...BUT I LOVED THIS BOOK HOW SHE EXPLAINED VOODOO. HOW SHE SHOWED THE GOOD AND BAD (THOUGH I KNEW OF KNOW GOOD B4 THIS BOOK). SHE'S AN EXCELLENT WRITER....PUTS ME IN THE MIND OF TONI MORRISON. YOU HAVE TO BE OPEN MINDED TO READ THIS BOOK. BUT I LOVED IT.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to pass this one up--a voodoo mystery set in New Orleans with a female second year medical resident as the main character. Since she's moved to New Orleans, Marie Laveau has been having terrible, frightening dreams of otherworldly creatures who are trying to possess her. In the novel, Marie learns what these beings are and what they mean. Meanwhile, light-skinned young women are turning up murdered at the hospital and Marie and an appealing detective think there is a link among them all. Marie finds herself moving between centuries, where she discovers the power and love of her great great grandmother, also named Marie. I chomped through this novel in a little more than an afternoon. Very much escapist fare, with enough history and culture as backdrop to keep my attention. A fun read.

[Sarah Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of three modern day sequels to Voodoo Dreams, this is an excellent, pacy read. Much quicker to get going than the previous novel, but absolutely as compelling and still weaving stories around love, trust, family and womanity. If my TBR pile wasn't so demanding, I'd be reading Moon & Hurricane *right now*. As it is, I will save those til the New Year. Super grateful to authors Eden Royce & Nuzo Onoh for recommending this author to me. Worth your time, especially if you loved Voodoo Dreams.

[D. Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...it was like I was there. I truly enjoyed this book! I have never really read any books or thought I would read books about voodoo, but after reading another novel with this premise, it just peaked my interest. There is an allure of the mystical that just pulls me right in and this novel surely did not disappoint! Read it in a day, real easy read.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voodoo is one of my interests and Voodoo Season brings the Loa to life in a modern day mystery. The author does a good job of writing a compelling story and weaving historical fiction and mystery dramas together.

[Tattooed Horror Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super atmospheric, beautifully written, and the author expertly blended past & present in a way that felt compelling. This was an engrossing & quick read, absolutely a page turner for me. Looking forward to reading this author again.

[KJP JACKSON-PETERSEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good- woman moves to New Orleans--get mixed up in voodoo and discovers that she is connected to the famed Marie Lavoe (im probably sp this incorrectly).

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story - I didn't know when I started it that it was a sequel. Having more background might me like the story even more. Quick read.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt dreamy and dripped with New Orleans. My only complaint is that it felt like all the solutions were *magic* and didn't seem like real solutions.

[Steve Cran]

Marie Levant, from Chicago, is doing her internship at the Charity hospital in New Orleans. Marie hails from Chicago and has lived most of her life in foster care because her mother died when she was 8 years old. When she sleeps at night she is haunted by dreams where people are crowding around her and touching her white dress asking her to heal them. When she waks up she is with a a young man who is 19 years old. She is 10 years older than him. She sends him off. Later on at the hospital after a shoot-out at a local bar a bunch of dead bodies come in. Everyone is apparentally dead. One young female is pregnant. They managge to save the child but not the mother.Marie ens up becomingg attached to the baby. Later on more bodies come in Marie is interviewed by police officer Renaux and co worker Du Lac. They inform her that she has the sight and the gifft. She freaks out and leaves the room. When she tries to finds the baby she has become so attached to she finds that it wa taken away. Thus begins her quest to find the baby. Some family named Dela Croix has adop[ted the child, so Marie goes out to the Baayou to speak with the faamily. While out in the bayou she injures a dog and geets her car tippped over by thugs working for the DelaCroix family. She is rescued by Renauz the police offficer. A relatiohsip develops and Marie is introduced to her destiny. She was born to be a vodo preistess. Her real name was Marie Lavaux and her grand mother was a big priestess in New Orleans. However great evil is a foot. Maries is introduced to her voodoo heritage and the fight is on to battel bad people using voodoo to turn young women intoo zombies and then sell the off. There is a climaticc show down at a mansion, and no doubt Marie's story will continue

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth novel I've read by Rhodes...and I have loved every one...She brings her unconventional storytelling back to New Orleans, this time, pre-Katrina. She also brings Marie Levau's namesake back to 21st century New Orleans.

She brings us the heat, the mystery. The decadence, and yes, the otherworldly atmosphere....and she does it with flair.

Marie Levant grew up in foster care in Chicago. Her memories of her mother are steeped in confusion and frustration. There never was anyone but her mother...and too soon, there was no one. Marie is now finishing her medical residency in Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She soon finds herself in the middle of Voodoo dreams and mysteries.

She meets amazing people in her journey. She finds companions to assist her as she becomes more and more certain that she IS Marie Levau, voodoo princess.

There is a solid mystery at the heart of the book, but it's a mystery that can only be solved using the power Marie is only beginning to understand.

The supporting characters, human and canine, are strong. We care about them, as they care about Marie.

As important a main character as Marie is, so is the city of New Orleans...sin city...city with a past we cannot hope to understand. A past that presses on Marie to claim her birthright.

The first Marie would be proud of her daughter.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Season, we meet Marie Levant, a medical resident at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She was drawn to New Orleans for her residency for reasons she doesn't really understand, and ever since she arrived, she's been having strange dreams and intuitions. When several teens wind up dead in her emergency room with the same mysterious mark on them, she gets drawn deep into a world of ancient families and voodoo rituals - and learns that she herself is actually a descendant of the great Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. As she learns more about her family history - as well as the good and the evil sides of different voodoo practitioners - she gets closer to solving the mystery of the murdered teenagers.

I just love these books. They are both mysteries and also the best kind of supernatural occult story. There are romance elements wrapped in there with great sex scenes, and visceral emotions. Rhodes writes so, so well, you feel like you are in the story, living it with the characters. I am slowly working my way through her entire catalog because I love the stories so much!

[Twilightandstars · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Life be a celebration. Being a woman be just fine. - Membe, Marie's African ancestor"

I just finished reading Voodoo Season: A Marie Laveau Mystery, and I very much got the impression that it was meant to be a chapter in a series. I have not read the first book, Voodoo Dreams, but am interested in doing so. Voodoo Season is the story of the great-great grandaughter of Marie Laveau, and her realization of what was passed to her by her ancestor. I would love to hear Marie Laveau's story, as she was just a whisper, a ghost, and a guide in this book. Great atmosphere and great detail of voodoo's presence in New Orleans. The next book in the trilogy is Voodoo Jazz. If you are interested in Voodoo/Vodou, I highly recommend:

Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou by University of California, by David Cosentino

[LadyTechie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the history of voodoo and the passing of the baton from descendant to descent. I also really liked the premise regarding the Laveaux and DeLaCroix families. I also had a great appreciation for how the author showed the differences of the religion of voodoo and how it has gotten twisted and touched on the relationship it had to Catholicism and slavery. I was not entirely happy with the ending. It felt a bit rushed and I have to add that I wish that things progressed differently but not withstanding that I liked the book and will include the follow-up in the reading list.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Once I started it, it didn't take long to finish. Originally published as "Voodoo Season" it is Book #1 in a trilogy about Marie Laveau, set in New Orleans. Considering I've been pining for New Orleans for some time now, I devoured it like a starving man would eat pizza. Full of descriptions so vivid you can see it, food so richly recounted you can nearly taste it, & murders so black you can feel the deceit. Loved it. I can't hardly wait to read the other three.

[Cazna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read. Not entirely challenging but still enjoyable enough of a read. Finished this in a day, a cold rainy day. I found that the dialogue between characters was not, at times, gramatically correct. So it made conversations rather hard to follow. Not bad not great either, I guess that is why it only cost me one dollar from the library!

[Mendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and easy read. I liked Voodoo Dreams better because I enjoyed the historical aspect of the setting. This one is still pretty intense with sexual situations and I would definitely read Voodoo Dreams first to get back ground information and there are several references to events that occurred in the first novel. Hoping my library has Voodoo Jazz!

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if it was because I listened to this book on cd, and the reader wasn't that good, or whether it was just poorly written - maybe both... but I kept wanting to speed the chapters up. It was just ok. The protaganist was a bit annoying. I really wanted to like it... but umm, not so much.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this 2nd book in the series, based on the descendent of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, well enough to want to continue with the series. A mystery to be solved, interesting characters, and good plot. Helps to read Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau first.

[L. Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was intriguing and pretty good. I do wish that we didnt have quite so many flashbacks because it took away from the main plot, in my opinion, but in the end, the entirety of the book had an excellent premise. Perhaps I am simply a fan of the mystique, but it definitely took me to another world. Good book.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest, I did not actually finish the book. I read to aout page 200, but the book just kept getting WORSE! I do not recommend it at all. The writing is juvenile and vague. The story is not very interesting. Maybe someone that knows/cares more about voodoo might like it, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Additionally, this is one of four books I did not complete.