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A review by thistle_and_verse
Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith
4.0
Enjoyed this middle grade debut from Smith. The atmosphere and creepy imagery were wonderful. The antagonistic Stranger, in all his incarnations, was threatening. Hoodoo is an endearing protagonist. He's perpetually the odd one out - his mother's dead and his father lives in a disgraceful exile, he's the only one in his family without an affinity for hoodoo, and he's often bullied by his peers. I liked his relationship with his crush Bunny. Bunny's not quite a tomboy, but she's athletic, good at whittling, and can generally handle herself. Even though she doesn't need Hoodoo to look out for her, he tries to defend her, and when he isn't able to protect her, Hoodoo doesn't twist his embarrassment into a resentment of Bunny.
This had all the ingredients to be a 5-star read for me, but I had some issues with the story. I was unclear on who the target audience was for the book. It seemed like Smith assumed that readers knew next to nothing since he had Hoodoo consistently explaining terms to the reader (which I didn't like because I thought it disrupted the flow of the story without adding much), but if that were the case, I would have expected more context clues about other aspects of the story. The ending felt a bit rushed. Hoodoo learns some very impactful information that I thought would take him some more time to synthesize. The world felt a little flat because it felt like all the side character's lives revolved around Hoodoo, whether it was helping or hindering him. If I were reading this as a preteen, I doubt I would've noticed the critiques I described above.
This had all the ingredients to be a 5-star read for me, but I had some issues with the story. I was unclear on who the target audience was for the book. It seemed like Smith assumed that readers knew next to nothing since he had Hoodoo consistently explaining terms to the reader (which I didn't like because I thought it disrupted the flow of the story without adding much), but if that were the case, I would have expected more context clues about other aspects of the story. The ending felt a bit rushed. Hoodoo learns some very impactful information that I thought would take him some more time to synthesize. The world felt a little flat because it felt like all the side character's lives revolved around Hoodoo, whether it was helping or hindering him. If I were reading this as a preteen, I doubt I would've noticed the critiques I described above.