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The House of Erzulie

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The House of Erzulie tells the eerily intertwined stories of an ill-fated young couple in the 1850s and the troubled historian who discovers their writings in the present day.

Emilie St. Ange, daughter of a Creole slaveowning family in Louisiana, rebels against her parents by embracing spiritualism and advocating the abolition of slavery. Isidore, her biracial, French-born husband, is horrified by the brutalities of plantation life and becomes unhinged by an obsessive affair with a notorious New Orleans vodou practitioner.

Emilie’s and Isidore’s letters and journals are interspersed with sections narrated by Lydia Mueller, an architectural historian whose fragile mental health further deteriorates as she reads.

Imbued with a sense of the uncanny and the surreal, The House of Erzulie also alludes to the very real horrors of slavery as it draws on the long tradition of the African-American Gothic novel.

275 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

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About the author

Kirsten Imani Kasai

7 books53 followers
Kirsten Imani Kasai is the author of three novels: The House of Erzulie, Ice Song and Tattoo.



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5 stars
38 (26%)
4 stars
42 (28%)
3 stars
51 (34%)
2 stars
13 (8%)
1 star
2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
Profile Image for ColumbusReads.
407 reviews62 followers
March 4, 2018
A Gothic, gorgeous, gem of a book with dual storylines of 1850’s slavery, voodoo/mysticism and mental illness and present day sensuality and marital strife. Kirsten Imani Kasai’s writing is simply breathtaking at times as I found myself rereading passages for their sheer brilliance.

The author beautifully weaves a dark, mysterious Louisiana of the mid-1800’s where there are secrets and lies, spirits and witchcraft, sex and sensuality all with writing so exquisite you are left transfixed and totally in awe.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the sort of hierarchy of races and where exactly one fits in with this group of mixed-race mulatto’s, octoroon’s and quadroon’s that was so prevalent during many parts of the South.

The most daring feat, however, is much of this book is written in epistolary form with diary entries and letters where you get the senders notes but not the reply. It’s possibly the best use of this form that I’ve seen thus far.

Talent this good is rare! Really looking forward to reading more by this fantastic author.

Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Melody.
7 reviews2 followers
February 23, 2018
Every eerie and foreboding word of this African American Gothic beauty had me riveted. The interweaving of the individual stories was done masterfully, and each character voice was distinct and well-formed. So many times during reading I felt like one does when watching a scary movie - NO! DON’T GO IN THERE! I found myself clutching my pearls at one moment, and squirming in disgust the next. The complex combination of spiritualism and voudou, body horror, madness, the cold reality of slavery, and good old human emotional stickiness, made this a book to get lost in.

There were several times that I had to pause in the story to backtrack a page or so to re-read the author’s words. Not because of a lack of understanding, but because some parts were so beautifully written that I had to go back for seconds.
Profile Image for Shomeret.
1,076 reviews243 followers
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August 27, 2018
I read this book because the African American Historical Fiction group chose this as the BOM for this month, and it looked like a book I needed to read. Unfortunately, I was wrong about that. I didn't need to read this book. I did like the historical protagonist Emilie. She was gutsy and ahead of her time. I also liked the healer and Voudou magic practitioner Clotilde. Unfortunately, the book was overwhelmed by characters who were cowardly and self-destructive, or downright evil. This isn't supposed to be a pleasant read since it takes place in the context of slavery, but I didn't feel educated by the book either.

This is not the first time that I've read historical fiction taking place in NOLA and its vicinity during this period. It's also not the first time that I've read a fictional portrayal of Marie Laveau and/or her daughter since scholarly biographies about them have emerged and been ignored by the author. There was an instance of pantheon confusion too. Oshun is a Yoruban orisha, not a Voudou loa. I think that the loa who would have been called upon in that instance would have been Ayida Wedo.

Kasai seems to be allowing readers who want to believe that psychological problems are sufficient to explain some or all of the events that take place in this novel to do so. Other readers with a different orientation may draw other conclusions about certain events. Regardless of how you feel about what really happened, it's not a comfortable read.
Profile Image for Tariqah.
82 reviews8 followers
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January 5, 2018
Kristen Imani Kasai is a brilliant, theatrical writer with a wit and allure she applies to carefully-chosen adjectives and adages. Her story The House of Erzulie, is both a delight (especially to the romantic fanatic) and a real heartache to read.

The hint of historical references made coquettish with her style of writing and the refined depictions of traditional, African-American Gothic makes Kasai’s piece worth keeping on the shelves.
Profile Image for Alicia (PrettyBrownEyeReader).
243 reviews38 followers
November 29, 2021
I began reading this book thinking it would be a voodoo laced tale. Instead, this novel is a gothic tale, an unfamiliar genre to me. The novel takes place in two time periods, antebellum Louisiana and modern day. In both time periods, a main character experiences mental illness. The author describes the psychotic episodes is spell bounding.

The beginning of the novel is structured in an epistolary style. The second half consists of journal. There were no daily entries for the journal which caused the second half of the book to feel ran together. The journal recount could have used breaks to allow the reader to decipher changes in days and locations.

This book was the November selection for the @readsoullit Patreon book club and provided some lively discussion. It would be a good read for those who enjoy gothic stories, plantation narratives and characters dealing with mental illness.
Profile Image for James Rhodes.
Author 126 books23 followers
February 21, 2018
Kirsten Imani Kasai's much anticipated novel is nothing short of a masterpiece, from the outset it is obvious that this is the work of writer who is at the peak of their talents: instantly compelling and yet meditative in its approach there is a great deal to be excited about in this novel. It is a novel where the supernatural lurks behind the characters as an ominous force but with a subtlety that suggests it may be a projection of their personal and social issues.

All of the narrators are clearly drawn and engaging to read; once you have read the book you would easily be able to identify which one was talking from any two sentences of their prose which drips with individual style. The author writes with a very rich literary style that never feels intentionally stylised, the character voices reflect their periods, gender and social position without needing to announce themselves as doing so.

The subject matter is openly and realistically bleak, however the characters are so full of energy and human purpose that it is at all times a pleasure read. The social issues arise organically as a part of the plot, motivating and horrifying the characters who are emotionally driven rather than cerebral, leaving the brain work up to the reader. I felt a particular romantic fascination with each of them, wanting to step in and help them at various times throughout the novel.

The book is well plotted and being set at a period of slavery does not shy away from viewing the slave owners as human and sympathetic, whilst unveiling the absolute brutality of the institution. As is typical of the classical African-American novel, events are portrayed without judgement to give the reader a chance to consider causality over blame. The exception to this being Isidore's horror at the treatment of the slaves which again fits organically into his character.

There is an impressive level of research that has gone into The House of Erzulie (or else the author is a time traveller). Most of all in the mundane details that create the world of Ante-Bellum New Orleans that characters occupy. A problem I have often come across in mock-Period fiction is the need to frame the story against historical events or the stilted introduction of fancy new inventions like with characters. There is none of that in The House of Erzulie, the world is fully developed (to the point of feeling almost like a second world fantasy story) and whilst there are numerous detailed recounts of the culture of the time it is a natural part of the setting that makes the book a wonderful place to dwell in.

Although it is only February, I suspect this is a strong candidate for being my book of the year.
Profile Image for Bukola Akinyemi.
222 reviews13 followers
November 28, 2021
“Is this what love is, storm and stagnation? An eternal ocean in ebb and flow, the shore and the sea moving away from and toward one another in ceaseless motion?”

I noticed that most of my reviews mention beautiful writing and asked myself what I mean by that, the quote above is an example. This book is full of such quotes.

Themes of mental health, slavery, marriage and infidelity, religion, science and traditional spirituality are explored in this book from the 1850s to present time.

I enjoyed the writing stlye especially the use of letters giving insight to different character’s perspective of the same events. The twists and turns at the end giving meaning to those events.

This is me reading outside my comfort zone, my very first gothic novel. It’s not for everyone especially because of the triggers it may give some people.
Profile Image for thedailydiva .
258 reviews
March 31, 2022
3.5 gothic stars

I read this book slowly, intentionally. I wanted time to reflect and process. I think that decision worked against me. I overthought everything and that made me hate Emilie.

This story is told epistolically(?) through three main Characters: Emilie, Isidore, and Lydia. It opens with Emilie’s letters to a friend we never meet. Right off the bat, I disliked Emilie. She seemed young, trite and wispy. Upon reading the rest of the novel, I have to give great credit to the Author. I was bamboozled by Kasai’s ability to create such a fittingly naive character, purposefully.

Kasai’s writing is masterful. She uses words to paint her characters. While letting the reader into the characters lives through their own writings she simultaneously tells you everything you need to know about these characters in their own words. Fleshing them out, using their own words. My disgust for Emilie happened quickly, but as we the reader, are just as quickly introduced to this young lady on the cusp of womanhood, we understand her naïveté is intentional. She is representative of women of her time and social standing. That was brilliant. She irritated me so, I was very happy to meet her Husband, Isidore, through his words.

Here is where Kasai lets loose on us. She’d been holding back. Isidore’s writing style is night and day to his wife. Showing education and world knowledge, Isidore’s musings are poetic and painterly. His writing make up the bulk of the story, and that was alright with me. His descent into madness, and experiencing that in his words was terrifying.

Finally, and interspersed, we meet Lydia, a 20th century woman who discovers the writings and story of Emilie and Isidore, and a personal connection and similarity to their stories. Lydia’s musings and mental health take on both the naïveté of Emilie and the poetic prose of Isidore the deeper she descends. These three characters take us on a gothic thrill ride of magic, madness and mystical sexuality.

I enjoyed this story, it deserves a higher rating, but it dragged for me in too many spots. Her descriptive writing of some situations made me uneasy and slightly disgusted. I appreciated the author’s well researched work. It has spun me in a new direction to learn more about Creole owned plantations and the lives of mixed race Blacks in the late 1800s! Always new tangents to follow.

If you enjoy, or think you would enjoy a gothic journey in madness and magic, this book does its job.
Profile Image for Laura Hoffman Brauman.
2,726 reviews41 followers
December 1, 2021
The House of Erzulie has two timelines - a historian in contemporary times researching the lives of a couple on a Louisiana plantation in the 1850's and the lives of that couple. The story moves back and forth in time. Lydia, the historian, is swept up in the story of this couple while ignoring her own breaks with reality and her personal problems with her husband and her son. The young couple, Emilie and Isidore, were an arranged marriage and while Emilie is strong and independent (and one of my favorite characters in the novel), Isidore also struggles with hallucinations and delusions. I appreciated some of the writing - there are some beautiful, evocative passages, but I'm not a big horror reader, nor am I particularly fond of gothic storytelling. I think I lost some of my enjoyment of the plot because the graphic descriptions of some of the violence and hallucinations were a bit too much for me.
3 reviews8 followers
March 20, 2018
I could not put this HOUSE OF ERZULIE down. Okay, I did have to eat, sleep, go to my job, interact with my family, etc., however Kasai's creation of a lush, sensual, and scary world was spellbinding. To say the plot, writing, characters and the story was gripping is an understatement. Further, the language is breathtaking. Kasai writes in a way that invites the reader to be in the story, and believe me there were times this was not what I wanted because of what was happening in the novel such as the cruelties of slavery, mental illness, and ghosts. As a writer, I appreciated the amount of research and historical history included in the novel. Not only was I entertained but I learned a lot, too. I cannot recommend this novel enough. Get it today; you will not be disappointed.
Profile Image for Samantha.
99 reviews1 follower
August 9, 2022
This book stirred so many emotions for me. At first I found the book to be frustrating and a bit slow, mostly because I was unsure where it was going. But once I started reading Isidore's part, I was hooked. The book does a really good job of blurring the lines between reality, mania, and magic. Once I thought I understood the plot, the author would throw a wrench in it. Truly a thrilling read.
Profile Image for Passion Y.
153 reviews3 followers
August 23, 2023
The slave help tried to warn the man and offer help on how to rid of the curse but he didn’t trust her. It’s crazy how his choices cursed his generations, even the ones he knew nothing of.
Profile Image for Acara.
35 reviews
April 21, 2018
My goodness, this book!

Kasai's writing style is stunning. I became a huge fan after reading the 2nd or 3rd page while still in the bookstore. The way she compared love to a cup of sugar spoke to me directly and so beautifully. I set aside the rest of my day knowing I was about to power through this entire book in one sitting.

I enjoyed the use of the letters and journal to show 2 different perspectives of the happenings at the plantation. There was also the 1st person perspective of the current day protagonist. Each one had their own tone, style and ways of describing their thoughts, fears, actions. You really get inside their heads. I was fascinated.

The story itself is...very good. lol I wish I had Kasai's eloquence to better describe how much I enjoyed this. I've been recommending this to everyone.
168 reviews
May 24, 2018
I very much liked the structure of this book- I love a good multiple POV narrative. The switches between the characters was well done too- there was no one character that the author wrote better than the other. The thing that soured the story for me was the ending- I just didn’t think it was necessary. The novel was so interesting in its examination of perspective and our perspectives of our relationships, and the ending just seemed like it was thrown in there to connect the timelines, which again, was not necessary at all.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for K. Salter.
312 reviews34 followers
June 4, 2018
I sort of wish it was just the diary entries, but that’s just my taste. I also think a little more research could have been done on the historical aspect. Over all, pretty good book 3.5/5
Profile Image for Jerry.
26 reviews
July 15, 2020
Did you come for love or magic?
I picked this book thinking from the title and cover art it was Caribbean fiction and I know now I should have paid more attention to the back cover blurb but many novels I enjoy flip between island locations and the Caribbean diaspora. Until now I wasn’t aware African American Gothic was a thing and House of Erzulie seems to blend gothic horror with a perverse romance novel feel: unremitting desire leading to graphic madness which may or may not involve the black arts. Now I know differently. The back cover descriptions: ‘becomes unhinged…fragile mental health further deteriorates…..” do not begin to encompass the depths of madness in this tale presented with such explicit detail into deranged minds.

The book held me. I enjoyed the format and writing style, if not the vivid descriptions. At no point was I ready to put it aside but I did think parts were too long. Broken into five sections the narration flips from the life of a modern dysfunctional family, often aloof and somewhat loveless, to the letters a young bride raised to inherit a slave plantation around 1850 writes to a friend living in the north and then to her husband’s journal.

Emilie is blossoming into womanhood under conditions she comes to recognize as evil. Her letters, written to her dearest friend and confidant had been preserved and sent to Lydia, a woman hired to consult on the refurbishing of the Belle Rive plantation some 165 years into Emilie’s future. They feature Emelie’s impending marriage to Isidore, a genteel Mulatto cousin imported from France, her joy at becoming a young bride, her blooming sexuality and its surprising enjoyments and her growing disaffection with her family’s livelihood. She recounts to her most cherished friend the harshness Geneviéve has escaped by moving north, the cruelty toward slaves, her growing loss of familial piety, her idler brother’s habits and eventual death, her loss of two children and life in general on a New Orleans plantation and then her young love’s descent into insanity.

We find ourselves back in Philadelphia in the new century where Emilie’s letters to Geneviéve are reawakening wife Lydia’s mental stresses. Hired as a consultant Lydia is invited to tour the New Orleans plantation to better understand how to use her architectural design knowledge to offer the best advice on the great house’s refurbishment but her grip on reality is loosening. Prompted by her son’s growing slackness and the discovery of an affair between her husband and a friend, she puts to use the 1850’s doctor’s bloodletting kit, basin and knives and begins cutting herself again. She had been sent the kit and other artifacts from the plantation along with Emilie’s letters and Isidore’s journal. She also steals drugs from her son and descends down her own path of pain/relief, herself taking a young lover.

Upon her return north, Lydia begins reading Isidore’s journal which takes us back to the 1850’s, Isidore’s arrival in the states and a chance encounter with P’tite Marie, daughter of the notorious Marie Leveau. The journal catalogues his disaffection with the New World, his possibly partial mystical affair with the daughter of the witch-queen of New Orleans and a heavily gothic decay into horrific dreams of sex and succubi.

By now, Lydia’s grip on reality is plummeting. Descriptions of wanton, drug and alcohol induced madness wandered too much for my taste as Lydia, like Isidore before her is being committed.

Being invited into the inner workings of two demented minds was horrible, hence the ‘gothic’ connotations.

My main issue with House of Erzulie is that a few sections were too long, seeming to wander the halls of Isidore’s mind and he fought sleep so as not to dream of the decaying house, the vision of his love, the attempts to protect his dead and buried son from being used in arcane rituals. After a while I just wanted this to end. I also found the sex much too graphic, sometimes laughably so. Lydia cooks a dinner of (I think pasta) Puttanesca with her young lovers semen dribbling down her thighs, then is taken by her husband in apology or make-up sex. It was a bit much! Another problem I had was the way Lydia’s intimates, a lover and her husband seemed to obliviously accept her naked body which seemed to be horribly scarred by her cuttings and bloodlettings. Making love with partially healed scabs and open wounds stretched my belief a bit too far yet I have to believe these sections were not in Lydia’s dream mind.

The final few pages tied the book together in a visit to Lydia’s asylum by Owen, a young intern who had led her on her tour of the plantation. His respect for Lydia and her work leads him to discover blood ties between P’tite Marie and Lydia, thus rounding out the tale. The quick resolution was fine by me but I wished it happened a bit sooner.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Arnetha Villery.
117 reviews62 followers
October 31, 2019
THE HOUSE OF ERZULIE tells the eerily intertwined stories of an ill-fated young couple in the 1850s and the troubled historian who discovers their writings in the present day.

Emilie St. Ange, the daughter of a Creole slaveowning family in Louisiana, rebels against her parents' values by embracing spiritualism, women's rights, and the abolition of slavery. Isidore, her biracial, French-born husband, is an educated man who is horrified by the brutalities of plantation life and becomes unhinged by an obsessive affair with a notorious New Orleans voodou practitioner.

Emilie's and Isidore's letters and journals are interspersed with sections narrated by Lydia Mueller, an architectural historian whose fragile mental health further deteriorates as she reads. Imbued with a sense of the uncanny and the surreal, THE HOUSE OF ERZULIE also alludes to the very real horrors of slavery, and makes a significant contribution to the literature of the U.S. South, particularly the tradition of the African-American Gothic novel. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟😍
Profile Image for Kali.
382 reviews5 followers
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December 24, 2021
Interesting - I think I would have liked it better without Lydia's portion at all. A good gothic horror with the letters and the journal would have been a great self-contained story. I felt no pull or interest in Lydia. But I was very interested in Isidore and Emilie's story. What would have been interesting is if the journal and the letters were interspersed between each other. If one of Emilie's letters followed one of Isidore's journal entries then we could see both sides at the same time. And take Lydia out all together. There is a familial tie, and also she's introduced as a way for the reader to access the letters, but I was the least interested in her part. So I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.
Profile Image for Andrea.
211 reviews10 followers
October 13, 2020
Antebellum Louisiana voodoo gothic, epistolary, multi-narrative, unreliable narrator...this book has all of the things and somehow manages to pull it off! I listened to this book on audio and could not stop listening! The alternating narrative between present day and antebellum New Orleans was well written and the author's prose was hypnotic. I did not see the twist at the end coming, though I do wish that there was some more backstory to the present day narrative to support the twist.

I purchased this book on Chirp via a Deal of the Day and would absolutely recommend this for a spooky October read!
Profile Image for Tawnya.
35 reviews
November 23, 2021
Interesting

This was an interesting read for me because it was way out of my scope. I thought the writing was beautiful almost poetic in some areas. I found myself more drawn to Isidore’s writings. The mental illness throughout the book was sad. I can’t get off into the voodoo because I don’t have any beliefs in that so this was a pretty wild story and read for me. I started to get lost somewhere near the end and I was left a little lost. Overall this book made an interesting read it was chosen by my book club, not sure if I ever really figured out or understood who/what Erzulie is, a being, the house, a person I don’t know.
Profile Image for Julia Smillie.
104 reviews3 followers
May 30, 2018
The House of Erzulie is a gorgeous, sweeping tale of love, tragedy, black magic and New Orleans history, anchored across two different centuries. Kasai's deep commitment to--and enthusiasm for--research is evident on every page, and the writing is lyrical and hypnotic, fully transporting the reader to another time. It is a tale of ambition, restlessness and madness with consequences that ripple beyond the imagination. Truly an engrossing read.
Profile Image for Madeleine.
785 reviews21 followers
April 23, 2018
This is a very good, very powerful book.
...I missed the fact that this is gothic horror, and horror is SO NOT MY THING. I need to stop reading horror novels by mistake.
Second and third stars because even while hating this and being horrified, and I was consistently aware that this is an excellent book. Just not my thing. At all.
12 reviews1 follower
June 6, 2020
Disturbing and beautiful- I am totally biased because I love stories based in the South and that have hints of magical realism. I read it on audible though so got a little annoyed by the dramatization of the southern women reading. Not an uplifting read but definitely full of intrigue and horror. My first horror book- very vivid imagery.
Profile Image for Suzanne.
Author 2 books195 followers
November 12, 2018
This sweeping tale—spanning two centuries—provides everything you could want from a gothic storyline: Complex characters, provocative plot, lyrical prose. As you flip through the pages of time, imaginations reel upon each new discovery and hypnotic twist!
Profile Image for Donna.
22 reviews
May 11, 2020
Haunting and meticulously researched HF by Ms. Imani Kasai. I loved the 3 points of view plus the past/ present storyline weaving New Orleans history with present-day issues. Perfect Historical fiction!
Profile Image for Dianne Matthews.
102 reviews1 follower
October 6, 2020
The book is well written. The language is beautiful. I'm not sure why I didn't love it. There were parts that drew me in and times I wanted the narrator to go back to another character. The ending fell really flat for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews

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