Root Magic by Eden Royce

Root Magic by Eden Royce is a wonderful novel about a Black girl, Jezebel, and her twin brother, Jay. Jezebel and Jay live in the South in 1963, and things are taking a turn for the worse. Their dearest grandmother has just died, and the police deputy won’t stop tormenting her family. However, as Jezebel and Jay soon realize, those might not be the worst of their problems. When their grandma died, she took some of her magical protection along with her, and now it’s up to Jezebel and Jay to learn rootwork and protect their home and family from haints, ghosts, and something much worse.

Their uncle, Doc, begins teaching them rootwork almost as soon as their grandma dies to train them to protect their property, and to help people with potions or other forms of rootwork. However, Doc hasn’t realized how dire the situation really is until one day when Jezebel gets taken over by a poppet. Thankfully, Doc is close by and is able to help her out of the situation and take her home.

As the twins continue their journey in rootwork, they realize that the world is not always what it seems. When Jezebel’s best friend turns out to not be who she says she is and the family finds people traps set along the grounds, the twins know that they must learn quickly, and diligently to truly protect their family from evil, some paranormal, and some not.

I really loved this book because of Royce’s absolutely magnificent mix of reality and fantasy. Black people did get assaulted and beaten for no reason, but haints and ghosts aren’t real creatures that haunt us. However, because of the way that Royce writes about Jezebel and Jay needing to protect their family from reality as well as fantasy magically blends the two opposites into the perfect combination.

Another reason isn’t because of the main story about evil haints, but because of the subtext that other humans can be crueler than the other ghosts. Because Jezebel’s family is a Black family living in the South, and as the story progresses you will find out that the haints and ghosts don’t do much to harm their family and instead the police, that are supposed to protect them, do.