Synopses & Reviews
A jazzman, a wharf worker, a prostitute, all murdered. Wrists punctured, their bodies impossibly drained of blood. What connects them? Why are they rising as ghosts?
Marie Levant, the great-great granddaughter of the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, knows better than anyone New Orleans's brutal past -- the legacy of slavery, poverty, racism, and sexism -- and as a doctor at Charity Hospital's ER, she treats its current victims.
When she sleeps, she dreams of blood. Rain, never ending. The river is rising and the yellow moon warns of an ancient evil -- an African vampire -- wazimamoto -- a spirit created by colonial oppression. The struggle becomes personal, as the wazimamoto is intent on destroying her and all the Laveau descendants. Marie fights to protect her daughter, lover, and herself from the wazimamoto's seductive assault on both body and spirit.
Echoing with the heartache and triumph of the African-American experience, the soulful rhythms of jazz, and the horrors of racial oppression, Yellow Moon gives us an unforgettable heroine -- sexy, vulnerable, and mysterious -- in Marie Levant, while it powerfully evokes a city on the brink of catastrophe.
Yellow Moon is part two of the New Orleans trilogy that began with Voodoo Season -- magical realist fiction that takes the legend of the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, as imagined by Jewell Parker Rhodes in the bestselling Voodoo Dreams, into the present day.
Review
"A compelling, mystical ride. Rhodes has created an exciting contemporary heroine battling New Orleans's racist past and preparing for post-Katrina times. Empowered, sassy, comfortable with her sexuality, Dr. Laveau is expert at spiritual and medical healing and at solving crimes. Dr. Laveau -- is all woman -- all the time. Doctor, mother, voodooienne -- a heroine dispelling evil, raising her daughter, and living large in New Orleans." -- E. Lynn Harris
Review
"In Yellow Moon, I recognized the blending of African and American; of ancient and modern; of lost but not forgotten; of real and imagined working together to create a new forever." -- Angela Reid, President of Imani -- Metro Atlanta
Review
“Richly dark and vividly haunting, Jewell Parker Rhodes gives us a taut and thrilling novel imbued with the lush and soulful spirit of New Orleans.
Yellow Moon is a magical, mysterious, and transfixing read.”
—David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Scavenger
Review
“A spooky, sexy novel about things that go bump in the night.” —Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In the second part of the New Orleans trilogy that began with Voodoo Season, Rhodes takes on an ancient African vampire in today’s Big Easy, where thrilling chills await. Now in paperback.When Marie Levant, the great-great granddaughter of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, sleeps, she dreams of rising waters. She knows better than anyone about New Orleans’ brutal past, its legacy of slavery, poverty, racism, and sexism. As a doctor at Charity Hospital’s ER, she treats its current victims. But she cannot cure her own terrifying dreams. When a jazzman, a wharf worker, and a prostitute all turn up murdered, their blood drained, Marie sees their ghosts and embarks on an adventure to uncover their dark connection. Meanwhile, in her dreams, the waters around New Orleans are rising and the yellow moon warns of an ancient evil, an African vampire called wazimamoto, intent on destroying Marie and all the Laveau descendants. Summoning her ancestral powers, Marie fights to protect her daughter, lover, and herself from the wazimamoto’s seductive assault on both body and spirit. Echoing with the heartache and triumph of the African- American experience and the horrors of racial oppression, Yellow Moon gives readers an unforgettable heroine in the sexy, vulnerable, and mysterious Marie Levant, while it powerfully evokes a city on the brink of catastrophe.
About the Author
Jewell Parker Rhodes, an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction, including Voodoo Dreams, Season (formerly titled Voodoo Season) Yellow Moon (formerly titled Yellow Moon), Magic City, Douglass' Women, Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors, and The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Nonfiction, is the Virginia G. Piper Chair in Creative Writing and artistic director of the Virginia G. Piper Center in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.