The Jumbie God's Revenge (Jumbies)

by Tracey Baptiste

[chymerra]

I haven’t been reading a lot of middle-grade books. My main reason is that I haven’t found ones that intrigue me enough to pick it up and read it. So, imagine my surprise when I realized that I have middle-grade books back to back. The Jumbie God’s revenge is the first of the three that I read.

The blurb for The Jumbie God’s Revenge was what made me accept the publisher’s invite to review. A tween girl going up against a powerful god? Yeah, I wanted to read it.

The Jumbie God’s Revenge was a simple read. Corrine is suspicious when an unexpected hurricane rips through her island home. She finds out that her actions have caused the god, Hurracan, to single the island out. With the help of her friends, Corrine needs to fix what she did before Hurracan destroys the island. Can she do it?

The Jumbie God’s Revenge is not a stand-alone book. I found out, early in the book, that I should have read books one and two before reading this book. There were times where I was left confused and wondering about events hinted at in this book. But, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this book.

The main plotline of The Jumbie God’s Revenge was fast-moving. There were a couple of small lags in the storyline. But the author did a fantastic job of getting the book back up to speed. There were also no dropped storylines.

I liked the characters in The Jumbie God’s Revenge. They were well written and fleshed out. My only complaint is that I couldn’t connect to them as well as I wanted to.

The Jumbie’s were an interesting mix of different ethnic backgrounds. I did do a google search and found that there Jumbee’s are a mix of African, Amerindian, Dutch, English, and Chinese mythology. The main jumbie’s in the book, Papa Bois and Mama D’Leau, are mythological beings out of Trinidad and Tobago. The god, Hurracan, is a Mayan god. I loved it.

The Jumbie God’s Revenge is 100% appropriate for middle-grade kids. I have a list going of books for my 11-year-old son, and this trilogy is going right on it.

The end of the book did seem a little rushed. But I liked how the author ended it. All the storylines were wrapped up. The characters got their HEA’s. I do wonder about Corrine’s aunt and how things are going to be once she remembers everything.

I would give The Jumbie God’s Revenge a Tween rating. There is no sex. There is no language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 13 read this book.

I would reread The Jumbie God’s Revenge I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**