STORMWITCH
Susan Vaught
Bloomsbury
Historical/Supernatural Fiction
ISBN: 1582349525
200 pages

After her maternal grandmother Ba passes away, sixteen-year-old Ruba leaves Haiti to live with her Grandmother Jones in Pass Christian, Mississippi. The year is 1969, and Ruba finds herself having to cope with much more than homesickness. Politics and racism are hot topics, and everyone is living delicately balanced lives. Grandmother Jones wants her granddaughter to go to church, look down when white people talk to her, and leave the heritage of her ancestors behind. Ruba wants to please her grandmother, but would like to keep the traditions of her dear Ba alive.

These traditions include the ancestry of the Dahomey Amazon women, powerful warriors who protected the king of the African kingdom of Dahomey. They used their strength and magic skills to ward off evil until they were defeated by the better-armed French in 1892. Ruba was taught the ways of the Dahomey women and that to ignore her past could bring about serious consequences. She knows that the evil stormwitch that took away Ba won't rest until the last of the Amazons is destroyed.

While Ruba is grappling with her own beliefs, she is confronted by the strong opinions of the people of Pass Christian. While out spending an afternoon with her neighbor Clay and her young cousin Gisele, Ruba meets a boy named Ray-Boy Frye, who is prejudiced against Ruba and her friends. When Ruba tries to defend herself, she learns that Ray-Boy's father Leroy is a leader of the Ku Klux Klan and is warned to avoid him at all costs. Ruba takes the warning, but is confused and upset when her grandmother doesn't want to fight back against racial injustice. She is told that it is better to push and not shove.

This advice proves to be difficult for Ruba when, a few days later, she has to save Clay from Ray-Boy and his friends. An even more dangerous situation arises the next evening when the Ku Klux Klan surrounds Grandmother Jones's church and threatens to burn it down if Ruba doesn't come with them. How she manages to stop the Klan raises many questions and creates more conflict between herself and her grandmother. Meanwhile, a dangerous storm is brewing that Ruba knows is no ordinary hurricane. Unfortunately, time is running out and Ruba is aware that only she herself can stop the stormwitch once and for all.

The personal and public turmoil that Ruba faces make this book a compelling read. The descriptions of life in Mississippi in 1969 are realistic and the story is well-written. Full of historical references, magic and suspense, STORMWITCH is a great page-turner.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Sawtelle (SdarksideG@aol.com)

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