YOU GUYYYYYYYYS.

Okay, so you know how sometimes the second book in series, especially when the first book was like AMAZEBALLS, can be a disappointment? THIS ISN’T ONE OF THOSE. This is one of those times where the second book is better than the first one.

Our heroine is Marlie, a biracial woman with a complex background. Marlie’s mother is the local root woman, and Marlie has been learning at her knee.  As explained by Mikki Kendall in our discussion of Queen Sugar:

Rootworking is another term for Hoodoo. It’s a Black American tradition rooted in West African beliefs that we brought here during slavery. Some would call it magic or religion. It’s syncretic and not something to trifle with as far as I’m concerned.

Marlie works in a combination of root work and science.

When we meet her, Marlie and her mother are free Black women in North Carolina. Marlie is eventually collected by her sister, the daughter of a plantation owner. Marlie’s father has died, and his children have freed his slaves and Sarah wants Marlie to come take her place as a daughter of the house.

It’s a complicated position to be in, a free Black woman in North Carolina, and as the Civil War rages, Sarah and Marlie are a part of the Underground Railroad. Marlie is also a part of the Loyal League, passing information to the Union Army about troop movements and anything else of interest. They also regularly visit the local prison that holds Union prisoners of war, including the hero, Ewan McCall (Ewan is the brother of Malcolm, the hero of An Extraordinary Union).

Ewan was an unremarkable soldier, but an excellent interrogator. Morally, he’s a little bothered about what he was asked to do, and that he was so good about getting people to tell him things. Mostly, though, he’s smitten with Marlie and their discussions about Greek Philosophy.  Ewan’s main criteria for a partner is “cognitive superiority” and that’s sexy as hell. I suspect that he’s at least a bit neuroatypical, and describes himself as being without empathy. (I don’t agree- I think that he has a LOT of empathy, but he can turn it off when he needs to.) Most of his character came from how he learned to deal with his abusive father, and is rooted in Greek philosophy. He’s fascinating.

There are a whole bunch of layers that made this a Bad Decisions Book Club entry (2 am!):

• Marlie’s White family and how they treat her and what all that means to her.
• Marlie’s sister, Sarah, is complicated, too: while she is an abolitionist and a Unionist, that doesn’t mean she’s free from prejudice (and she requires a lot of hand-holding from Marlie, managing her feelings and everything).
• Marlie’s finding a balance between the root working traditions of her youth, and the science-based education Marlie gave herself.

There’s a lot happening, but it never felt over-stuffed or like there was too much plot.

It was also super tense in places! Ewan spends a bunch of time as an escaped prisoner hiding in Marlie’s home…which has become home base for the Home Guard. The Home Guard’s main occupation was hunting down deserters and generally being a pack of sociopaths. Even though I knew it was going to end happily (I mean, it’s a romance, so it’s literally required) I wasn’t sure how bad things were going to get, and the tension was just SO VERY THICK.

One of the other lesser-known facets of the Civil War that Cole explores is the people: Quakers, abolitionists, Unionists, and poorer people who were not interested in fighting and/or dying for the Confederacy. The South was not a monolith, and there was resistance from many sides.  There’s always been a resistance, even if the Lost Cause narrative has erased these people from the narrative. They existed! They have stories that should be told!

Two of the most formative heroines of my youth were Ayla, from Earth’s Children, and Outlander’s Claire Fraser. One of the common threads was the historic medicine and plant-based remedies, so of course I was bound to love Marlie and be intrigued by her methods. I also loved the intersection between science and superstition, and how, yeah, the science works, but maybe the superstition does, as well?  I loved the tension that Marlie holds between these facets so much, and it’s so well done. There’s a moment where the enemy walks across her threshold, and she thinks, shit, I never buried a gris-gris at the gate to protect us. Would it have helped? Maybe.  Maybe not. The question lingers.

Cole’s books are always timely, and yet timeless. She has a solid grounding of how to use history in her plots, and knows exactly what story she wants to tell. I could not put this down, even as some of the characterizations made me squirm in recognition (Marlie’s White sister is the ancestor of a lot of white feminism. Like, a lot). I love it when the second book in a series totally exceeds the (very high) expectations of the first book.