Joseph King thinks God has told him to enter a mixed-race marriage with a voodoo-cursed teenager in the South during the summer of 1963. To make things worse, he’s the new Southern Baptist pastor in Bethel, Texas.
Gris-Gris Daughter, both Southern gothic and darkly inspirational, explores a religious, yet racist, small town culture where family ties nurture as well as strangle. This supernatural drama follows three generations of a family at a spiritual crossroads.
During the current day, Samantha Charles, a mixed-race product of rape, takes time away from college to visit the town of her roots, Bethel, Texas. Driven by the need for identity she discovers a story that starts with her grandparents, Joseph and Elise.
Reformed alcoholic and pastor, Joseph King has suffered from insomnia since returning from the Korean War. His early morning routine of push-ups and smoking a Lucky Strike would not sit well with his new congregation, First Baptist Bethel, if they knew about it. But King, sick of small town propriety, is more interested in hearing the mysterious voice of God whom he believes is calling him to do the unthinkable.
In a gothic tale of failure and redemption Gris-Gris Daughter weaves together the story of Elise Rabideau, Joseph King, and the tormented lives of their offspring in which revenge, rape and murder ratchet up the stakes. It examines the cultural and social issues that have ravaged much of the South over the last 200 years and how their binding effects, which without being broken, will continue to haunt the generations to follow.
Follow this link to Wattpad for a sneak peak at the first chapter. Click on the “reader” button in the far right of the navigation bar (the opening with the url in it up top) for a nice book-like version for enjoyable reading.