voodoo dreams - jewell parker rhodes

honestly, i was wondering if i should pick this book up or not. wouldn't want to be scared out of my wits! but reading it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
marie is just a little girl, living with her grandmother in a little wooden house in the bayous in the late 1800's. they are 'free coloreds', a term she doesn't think about until she is older and sees other blacks who are slaves. she also leads a normal, happy go lucky existence in the swampy bayous with her grandmother, spending evenings listening to her granny singing. all questions about herself, or her mother, are met with silence.
a chance encounter with a stranger in the swamps when she is twelve persuades her that her granny is holding out on something, which she has been wondering about her whole life... "who am i". twelve is also when she has her first vision. her granny is convinced the strangers meeting is crucial to them leaving and going to new orleans, which they do, when marie is fifteen, in search of a husband.
new orleans is where marie gets married, has more visions, and gets entangled in a web of deceit that passes her off as a voodoo queen. incidentally, marie IS third in line to be a voodooinne, or voodoo queen. what she sees and hears and is capable of performing, usually when she enters a trance during performances staged by the man holding her literally a prisoner, are real. she is exploited such till she finds a way to stop, when her grandmothers and husbands lives are threatened.
the voudon religion, or voodoo as it has come to be known, is described as how marie understands it. how it came from africa, how it was practised by her mother, grandmother and greatgrandmother, and how it is a peaceful religion, that has been exploited by others who scare and intimidate people for their own means, is the gist of this book. the voodoo god damballah, the great god, is portrayed as a snake. marie, when she communicates with damballah, in a trance, writhes like a snake, and is capable of performing miracles. it also describes marie's gentle and beautiful relationships with her husband, and a white catholic priest. yes, in new orleans in the 1800's!
highly rated by whoopi goldberg, it is an interesting read, different from the usual, or the expected, while entertaining too.