Book Review- This Wicked Game

This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink
♦publisher: Dial
♦released: September 11, 2012
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult

♦rating:♥♥♥

Review: In a world of gris-gris bags, herbs and spells, Claire’s life is surrounded by the members within the International Guild of High Priest and Priestesses. They are all part of an ancient voodoo line and Claire’s family exists only within in the world of their great voodoo ancestry and those that practice the art. Shrouding her life in High Priestess Balls, with fancy headdresses, formal proceedings, and Guild meetings.

Not sure of who she is, or what she believes in, Claire’s personal life is one that she keeps purposely hidden, even that of her relationship with the guild leaders son, Xander.

Yet when the shop door opens into her parent’s voodoo shop, a lady walks in and changes Claire’s fate forever. Requesting an order for black market items, Claire is suddenly thrust head first into the secret world of the Guild, as well as the world of voodoo practices. Opening the door to fractures in the Guilds’ group of leaders. Leaving room for the Guilds’ first-born to make the decision to discover the truth behind the items, or allow the craft of voodoo to end up killing them.

Claire can’t wait to escape the unscientific craft and explore the world of sensible factors.  However, once she discovers the lives of the guild members’ first-born are in danger, she quickly changes her mind, re-evaluating what is most important.  Not knowing where else to turn, Claire ends up turning to the safety and familiarity of craft, suddenly finding a  use and purpose behind the protection spells and gris-gris bags. Throwing Claire headfirst in a high stakes case of voodoo proportions, where life and death suddenly hang in the balance.

Leaving Claire with a new battle at heart, leading to more questions. Is the power of voodoo spells cast into the night sky real, or the work of pure imagination?  Should she continue on searching for that which gives her life sensibility and purpose, or finally embrace a strange world that really has been familiar to her all along? For in the end, the greatest power is that which leaves people who love you and come to your aid, when you need them the most.

This Wicked Game, delicately weaves the craft of voodoo, mystery and belonging which is the heart of the matter. Teaching the valuable lesson of - something that was once seen as fearful, can be transformed into something beautiful and purposeful. That honor and true worth can be found in the same place you wanted to leave behind.