Black Candle Women

A warm and wry family drama with a witchy twist about four generations of Black women living under one roof and the family curse that stems back to a voodoo sorceress in 1950s New Orleans.

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'All of you are cursed, you hear me?
An ugly death for the ones with whom you fall in love'

For generations, the Montrose women have lived alone with their secrets, their delicate peace depending on the unspoken bond that underpins their family life - Voodoo and hoodoo magic, and a decades-old curse that will kill anyone they fall for.

When seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, this careful balance is thrown into disarray. For the other women have been keeping the curse from Nickie, and revealing it means that they must reckon with their own choices and mistakes.

As new truths emerge, the Montrose women are set on a collision course that echoes back to New Orleans' French Quarter, where a crumbling book of spells may hold the answers that all of them hagve been looking for...

Rich in its sense of character and place, Black Candle Women is a haunting and magical debut from a talented new storyteller.

'Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder. This gorgeous debut novel is a sweepingly fashioned love story where romance and rebellion intertwine with fear and family. And the stakes are epic. I was completely and gladly under Ms. Brown's spell' AVA DUVERNAY

'A big-hearted debut, with complex, flawed, and compelling characters I was rooting for every step of the way' E.M. TRAN

'Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists' SADEQA JOHNSON

'A spellbinding romp. The Montrose women will have you clutching your pearls on this rollercoaster of a debut' CAROLYN HUYNH

'Written with warmth and an eye for detail, Diane Marie Brown's Black Candle Women explores the bonds of family and the magical power of belief to transform our lives' SHAUNA J. EDWARDS & ALYSON RICHMAN

'Black Candle Women is a compassionate novel about motherhood, sisterhood, independence, and the reflection and forgiveness required to break generational curses' DE'SHAWN CHARLES WINSLOW

'Brown deftly portrays an insular family of women in all of its complicated glory . . . The spiritual angle gives this powerful family drama a magical twist that will delight readers' BOOKLIST (starred review)

'Black Candle Women is a bold and tender story about three generations of women each attempting to find their way amidst the gifts and curses they've inherited . . . This novel is a wondrous celebration of womanhood' CLEYVIS NATERA

(P) 2023 HarperCollins Publishers