Vindictive vodouisants and family curses. Cold burn revenge. Hot and sticky Louisiana heat. Unrequited love and unbridled hate. Grandfather who was a Grand Dragon. Tragic mulattos as strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and a hurricane named Issac. ( )

One Blood by Qwantu Amaru

A prison of families, all tied together whether they want to be or not. This describes One Blood perfectly. The kids from the ‘hood, the rich governor’s family that is nowhere as perfect as they seem to be and an assassination plot to end all plots.

Growing up in foster care isn’t usually pleasant and for Lincoln Baker the only thing saving him was Moses. Moses took him in, raised him and never told him that he was doing it for Lincoln’s mother. He was taken away from her at birth but never left New Orleans. His best friend was Kris Lafitte – the Governor’s son. Was, because Kris was killed and they blamed Lincoln, although innocent.

Randy Lafitte spent his 18th birthday talking to a voodoo woman. Not necessarily unusual unless you consider he wants to kill his father. With all action comes reaction and Randy is a great example: everyone he loves dies around their 18th birthday. His son, Kris and now his daughter, Karen is nearly 18. He is frantic.

A merging of lives, a well written novel with a kidnapping, drugs, a hurricane and confessions bring One Blood to it conclusion. The characters were perfect and the ending satisfying.

I must apologize for the extreme lateness of this review. I had promised it several months ago but health issues intervened. ( )

I was excited to get this book. It was an excellent read. The characters were well written and the story was full of suspense and excitement. I highly recommend this book. ( )

One Blood is a roller-coaster of suspense, mystery, and in and out of the past, present, and future events of where the curse all started. Sometimes, in and out of time, it is hard to keep up with the events taking place, fast-paced but some things need clarification that comes in bits and pieces.

There is some racial tension that Walter and Malcolm discover, but a new Black militia is unleashed and seeking peace from their predecessors which is similar to Nat Turner's revolt from their slave masters. Moses, a past best friend, doesn't want to see his friends in Louisiana's worst bloodied prison like he served a 12 year of 15 year sentence. He made a plea to help Lincoln, Juanita's first son, that may be Randy Latiffe's son--who is he enemy according to past events. Other curses are revealed and will Randy be able to break the curse he started--Voodun can be some creepy crap.

I cannot wait to see how this book plays out...hard to put the Android Trio tablet down. ( )

Note: I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book through the Early Reviewer program of LibraryThing.

This is the story of many characters, all having lives that are intertwined more than they know themselves. There is the white governor of Louisiana and his wife and children. The deceased (murdered?) first black mayor and his wife, now with another man who strives for black power and is into Voodoo. A baby given up for adoption. A psychic who is also into Voodoo and her daughter. And all will find out the ties that bind them when the governor’s daughter is kidnapped. Is this because of the curse that follows the governor’s family around through the ages? And how can it be stopped?

I enjoyed reading the book, although it could have been better. The story keeps jumping in time, to roughly three time-periods, to explain the characters. For me, this made it all a bit confusing, although I understand why the author chose to reveal his story a small step at a time. The two main themes where racial politics and Voodoo, starting with the first and ending with the latter. Both aren’t familiar to me from my own experiences, so all I know is from books and TV. Probably because of this I had to put some extra effort into following the story, and trying to keep track of who was what race and had which goal in mind. The Voodoo I just followed along with, but it could have done with a bit more back story and follow-up.

The ending was pretty chaotic, and like other reviewers have said, I can see it as a movie. As for the book, it was pretty hard to follow in some places, to keep track of who is where and doing what. There are also still many story-lines open (or at least that is how it feels, looking back). All in all an entertaining novel, pretty violent and with supernatural elements, three out of five stars. ( )