Voodoo Fury by Greg Loomis

During their vacation in Haiti, Philip and his wife mistakenly witness a voodoo ceremony in which they sacrifice a young woman and eat part of her body. A forbidden ritual for the eyes of foreigners which will cause them serious consequences.

The nightmare begins when they end their vacation and return to their hometown in Atlanta and the plane almost crashes. Upon arriving home, they discover a voodoo doll in their son's room. He has no idea how it got there. They suspect that maybe it was his dog, however days later the poor dog appears dead in the garden due to a snake bite. The strange events begin to cause the couple headaches.

With the help of his neighbor Reid, he decides to clean the pool, keeping his little son close. Suddenly the kid is dragged by a huge force that traps him in the dirty water of the pool, a monstrous black arm forcefully pulls the little one. Philip and Reid cannot believe what is happening and together they try to save the boy. They manage to get him to safety although now the little one has some broken ribs.

Phillip begins to suspect that all this is because of that strange ritual. His wife doesn’t want to believe but he is convinced, so he decides to investigate on his own by reading about voodoo magic and its evils.

One morning at breakfast, the house begins to fill with smoke, alarmed, Phillip runs to his study. He’s surprised to see the draft of his new novel is on fire, three years of hard work turned to ashes.

On the brink of collapse, Phillip decides to meet with Dr. Devoux, an expert in the history of voodoo. He advises him that the best way to fight this type of magic is to minimize it. The less he thinks about it, the less it has the strength to hurt him. It seems to be a very simple thing but extremely difficult for Phillip who can't stop thinking about that horrible ritual.

He decides to face the Hounan (voodoo witch). He returns to Haiti in the company of Dr. Devoux. Both put their powers of concentration into practice to free themselves from the spell, however the Hounans' force is too strong. The air is filled with forms that move freely despite the power of the wind. Ugly birds and insects with evil eyes attack them.

The Hounan attacks them by inflicting their worst fears on them.

“Doctor Devoux is covering in thousands of bees their stings firefly pricks in his skin, each gulp of breath is labored and painful. He opened his mouth to gasp, but more bees enter his throat. He grasped his neck, squeezing as though to dislodge the creeping mass whose buzzing from his head filled his ears.”

Philip is inside a giant aquarium. The water has no source. It’s simply rising in the area immediately around him. Misshapen crabs come from nowhere, crabs with huge, jagged claws and black pinhead eyes. One scooted upward and dug a pincher twice the size of its body into the flesh of his leg. The worst part of his suffering is when Phillip hears the crying of his daughter Becky who died long ago due to the negligence of his alcoholic ex-wife. With all his might, Phillip tries to escape the spell and return to reality.

He opens his eyes and see the Hounans chanting, mumbling something in a voice too weak to understand. The water is gone, vanished with its evil’s minions. In two steps he was besides the Hounan, his hands reaching for her throat. Inches away from homicide, he stopped. There would be no need. Crumpled on the dirt like a bag of soiled clothes, she gave the choking, rattling sound he recognized from the men he had seen die in faraway battles. Phillip returns home heroically but saddened to learn that his friend, Dr. Devoux, has died.

Meanwhile, in the distant mountains of Haiti, an evil laugh is heard, a new Hounans is about to be reborn...

This book was easy to read but I didn’t really like it. The part about thinking happy thoughts to get rid of the Voodoo was ridiculous. Oh, a crab is poking my brains out, I need to think about picking up new yarn at Michaels.

\\\\ review by: Isabel Garcia. instagram: @gravesizzy