Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Baptiste never quite manages to control the story’s pacing, though, and certain elements in the ending feel arbitrary.ĭespite flaws, this is a book worth reading simply for its originalityĪn aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects. The novel is based on a Haitian folk tale, according to the author’s note, and it’s refreshing to see a fantasy with its roots outside Europe. In order to fight Severine-who, sympathetically, only wants a family but is bent on turning humans to jumbies to get one-Corinne must rely not only on her own strength, but that of newfound friends. It’s never satisfactorily explained why Severine (as Corinne’s jumbie aunt calls herself) seeks out her niece, nearly a decade after her sister’s death. The third-person narration tells the back story-in bits and pieces-of this jumbie, who reveals herself to be Corinne’s mother’s sister. However, this is no ordinary forest: It’s known for being the abode of “jumbies,” creatures “hidden in the shadows, always waiting for their moment to attack.” Though Corinne doesn’t believe in them, a jumbie follows her out of the forest.
On All Hallow’s Eve, when a pair of troublemaking brothers tie her deceased mother’s prized necklace to a wild animal, Corinne chases the animal into the forest to retrieve it. Corinne La Mer is a brave 11-year-old growing up on a Caribbean island.
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