The root worker /

The Woman, 11-year-old Ellen's confused mother, believes the black girl embodies a spirit of evil and misfortune that haunts the family. The Woman and the Husband distance themselves emotionally from Ellen, the mother out of madness, the father out of weakness. Younger brother Marcus is a playful companion, but older brother James is a sexual tormentor. Ellen finds thin solace in Catholic Church rituals and comfort in her alter ego, Clarissa. Meanwhile, the Woman seeks the guidance of a root worker, a voodoo priestess who holds sway in their downtrodden, 1960s Detroit community, where folks with southern backgrounds are caught up in a frenzy of "working" roots against evil and countering roots against the roots worked against them. The Woman and the Husband, an occasional Catholic, engage in a holy war, each looking for more powerful protective magic. When the Woman's mounting abuse and the root worker's perverse "cures" threaten to extinguish her soul, Ellen is rescued by a new neighbor's kindness. A strong debut that recalls Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970). --Vanessa Bush

A horrific subterranean maze of darkest superstition and cruel, crude magic underpins and undermines the world of the 11-year-old girl who narrates this powerful and disturbing first novel. Ellen is a poor African-American child growing up on Detroit's Lower East Side in the 1960s. She has a ragged connection to a terrifying reality. In her mind, she refers to her mother as the Woman, to her father as the Husband. When she becomes pregnant, she barely knows how or by whom. Her confidante, Clarissa, may not exist at all except in Ellen's tormented imagination. The Root Worker, a voodooish maker of spells and curses for an extortionate price has convinced the Woman that Ellen is the cause of the bad luck that befalls the family. Harrowing efforts are made to cast out Ellen's evil spirits. Ellen knows, from the sisters at the Catholic school she attends, that the Root Worker is the devil's handmaid and that it is a sin to believe or buy her charms and "fixes." Ellen's salvation finally comes from a neighbor who recognizes the child's plight and sets her mind and heart on reclaiming Ellen for the human uplands of hope and trust. This is a challenging, strongly written debut by a writer with the compassion and courage to peer into a very dark place. (June 19) Forecast: A strong contender for inclusion in African-American curricula, this book is also a natural for workshops and conferences on child abuse. Readers who appreciated Trezza Azzopardi's The Hiding Place will find this novel equally forceful. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A young African-American grows up under horrendous circumstances in 1960s Detroit. The time period is irrelevant, actually, since 11-year-old narrator Ellen, her family, and their neighbors seem oblivious to the larger world. There are few references to Detroit's distinguishing landmarks or history, and the isolation of Ellen's neighborhood is nothing compared to the girl's isolation from those around her. She calls her mother "the woman," her father "the husband." Told repeatedly that she is ugly and unwanted, slow and mentally "off," Ellen does behave in ways strangely innocent for her age, although she seems to keep up at the parochial school she attends and even to excel in catechism class. No one seems to notice that Ellen's mother is clearly the unbalanced member of the family. Under the power of the "Root Woman," a voodoo priestess, Mom has determined that evil spirits, in particular those belonging to Ellen's maternal grandmother, have invaded her daughter and must be removed. Ellen is forced to drink horrible concoctions, including bodily fluids. She endures countless beatings and instances of sexual abuse. She is raped and impregnated by her older brother before she's 12. Her mother, who blames "the husband" for the pregnancy and Ellen for enticing him, causes her to abort, then tells her she imagined the whole thing. "The husband" remains a sad, passive observer, and the teachers at her Catholic school (a setting of undeveloped literary possibilities) notice but say nothing. Finally, a new neighbor moves in, an educated woman by the name of Barbara, who feels a bond with Ellen-though the author doesn't convey this very persuasively-and becomes her protector. When Barbara takes Ellen's plight to the authorities, the battle over the girl's future comes to a head. Unconvincing first novel, despite some powerful scenes.