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A review by michellereadatrix
This Cursed House by Del Sandeen
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Jemma Barker's life as she knows it is over in Chicago, including her teaching job. When she gets an offer for a very well-paying position in New Orleans, she assumes she's being hired as a tutor. Upon arriving, she finds out the family that hired her has a different task in mind -- for her to break the curse that causes a member of the family to die tragically on a specific date. Jemma's birthday.
Did I mention Jemma sees ghosts? Has always seen ghosts?
The story is set during Jim Crow, which will make the depiction of segregation in New Orleans jarring for anyone who has been there in the modern age. However, the vast majority of the book takes place at the family's mansion/former plantation.
The Duchon family are all varying degrees of horrible, wearing their light skin -- they're Creole/mixed -- as proof of superiority toward everyone that has darker skin, including Jemma. They both claim pride in being "colored" and have no use for the civil rights movement.
Their house is built metaphorically and literally on family secrets that trap them, and Jemma, in a place of stagnation and trauma, but not so stagnant that the date of the next death doesn't edge closer.
The pacing tripped me up a little, and it felt like one of those books with an important deadline that the characters talk about incessantly, but perhaps don't treat as important as you feel they should. Jemma is there for months, but we're left to assume more than see she is making the curse breaking a priority.
This is a pretty minor issue for me, though. I'm doing this review weeks later, and the impatience I felt has mellowed, and what I remember best is the atmosphere and the family secrets and the sense of creeping disintegration of this family and their house.
Some of the secrets in this house of family secrets are obvious. At least 2. A few others are more surprising. The obviousness didn't take anything away because it's satisfying to be right! And then you add in the details that were a surprise and it's nicely enough done.
Do read this book if you like the New Orleans setting -- although, again, most of the story is set in one place -- themes of racism, colorism, wealthy people using money for shady ends, and family secrets. Ghosts.
Don't read it if you don't want those discussions. The horror is mildly gory and morally gross. If you want the big scares, this isn't it. This is more about the evil men do, although the ghosts are Not at All Happy!
Did I mention Jemma sees ghosts? Has always seen ghosts?
The story is set during Jim Crow, which will make the depiction of segregation in New Orleans jarring for anyone who has been there in the modern age. However, the vast majority of the book takes place at the family's mansion/former plantation.
The Duchon family are all varying degrees of horrible, wearing their light skin -- they're Creole/mixed -- as proof of superiority toward everyone that has darker skin, including Jemma. They both claim pride in being "colored" and have no use for the civil rights movement.
Their house is built metaphorically and literally on family secrets that trap them, and Jemma, in a place of stagnation and trauma, but not so stagnant that the date of the next death doesn't edge closer.
The pacing tripped me up a little, and it felt like one of those books with an important deadline that the characters talk about incessantly, but perhaps don't treat as important as you feel they should. Jemma is there for months, but we're left to assume more than see she is making the curse breaking a priority.
This is a pretty minor issue for me, though. I'm doing this review weeks later, and the impatience I felt has mellowed, and what I remember best is the atmosphere and the family secrets and the sense of creeping disintegration of this family and their house.
Some of the secrets in this house of family secrets are obvious. At least 2. A few others are more surprising. The obviousness didn't take anything away because it's satisfying to be right! And then you add in the details that were a surprise and it's nicely enough done.
Do read this book if you like the New Orleans setting -- although, again, most of the story is set in one place -- themes of racism, colorism, wealthy people using money for shady ends, and family secrets. Ghosts.
Don't read it if you don't want those discussions. The horror is mildly gory and morally gross. If you want the big scares, this isn't it. This is more about the evil men do, although the ghosts are Not at All Happy!