The One Unspoken

This first installment of Bryant’s Unspoken series promises ghosts, voodoo, and interracial romance in the antebellum South, but sadly doesn’t deliver. In New Orleans, a white girl, Sidonie, is raised by an enslaved Haitian woman, Adelis, and learns she can see ghosts. As an adult, Sidonie falls in love with a free black slaveholder, Gabriel, but their love is forbidden, not only by their culture but by Sidonie’s newly returned father, who’s promised her to another man. Bryant makes an attempt at historical accuracy, but the slaveholding characters are described as “flawed, but benevolent,” which only serves to feed historical misconceptions frequently used to defend slavery. Furthermore, Bryant mixes up Haitian Vodou and voodoo. The timeline is confusing, as flesh-eating zombies of modern America are conflated with the traditional zonbi of Vodou, and Jim Crow laws appear in the South years ahead of when they were actually enacted. The white author’s casual use of racial slurs completely dissolves any trust a reader might have left. At best, this is a disappointing start to a series that still holds some promise; at worst, it’s harmful in its propagation of racial and religious stereotypes. (Sept.)