Trigger warning for maiming, incest, and racism.
Three hundred dollars a week is a lot of money in 1962. So much so, in fact, that it tempts Jemma Barker from the relative safety of Chicago to New Orleans, where Jim Crow is violently enforced. She should have known that the money was too good to be true. In Del Sandeen’s original and chilling novel, This Cursed House, Jemma quickly learns that three hundred dollars a week is far too little to compensate her for dealing with the Duchon family.
Traveling south from Illinois to Louisiana in 1962 is like traveling to another country, another time. First, there’s the transfer to the segregated “colored” car. Then, there’s having to step out of the way of white pedestrians. There are cafes that won’t serve Jemma and buses that won’t take her where she wants to go. When Jemma reaches the Duchon house, in the countryside near New Orleans, she discovers that this place is no respite from segregation. Something much stranger—and much more dangerous—is haunting this house. Jemma is greeted by the matriarch, Honorine Duchon, a light-skinned woman of African descent who rules her family with a fierce, menacing will. The Duchons are a strange group. They never leave their house and grounds. They dress in old-fashioned clothes. Their maid does not speak, no matter how the family abuses her. And there does not appear to be a job. Jemma is being paid $300 a week to do little more than entertain Honorine’s granddaughter. The Duchons, frankly, made my skin crawl.
Jemma is not the kind of woman to be bossed around by anyone, no matter how much she’s being paid. She keeps her temper until a venomous comment from Honorine or an act of abuse towards the maid, Agnes, provokes Jemma into speaking her mind. In fits and starts, Jemma’s anger at the family and their strange ways makes the plot begin to move. Her anger prompts Honorine and her family to give up their secrets. And then, if you can believe it, things get even weirder.
This Cursed House is an incredible blend of Gothic ghost story, racism, and a vicious family so concerned with their image that they commit all kinds of crimes against their own relations that it takes the breath away. I loved how the plot would twist and turn, never going in the direction expected but always adding new layers to the story. There are some moments towards the end that get a bit mawkish (I skimmed these), but I’m willing to forgive these because the rest of the book is so original and so atmospheric. Readers who are looking for stories that blend family and American history will find a lot to enjoy here.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
