Root Magic

Root Magic is a 2022 historical fiction novel by Eden Royce. It is Royce’s first children’s novel, though she has published several collections of short fiction, many of which center on Black gothic horror, including Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror (2015), Spook Lights II: Southern Gothic Horror (2017), and Who Lost, I Found (2023). Originally from South Carolina, Royce’s works incorporate her Gullah Geechee culture. Root Magic draws from these origins, discussing rootworking practices in the Jim Crow South during the 1960s and pulling from the stories Royce heard as a child from her grandmother and great-aunt.

This guide refers to the 2022 edition of Root Magic published by Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Content Warning: This source material includes racially motivated violence.

Plot Summary

Root Magic begins with Jezebel “Jez” Turner and her twin brother, James “Jay” Turner, attending their grandmother’s funeral. Gran was a rootworker, and many would come to her for help. Jez tries not to cry over her grandmother, holding onto the doll, Dinah, her grandmother gave her. When she, her brother, mother, and uncle arrive home, a police officer is waiting for them.

The officer, Deputy Collins, insists on searching their house. Deputy Collins is always on the hunt for rootworkers, and Jez grows nervous. He leaves but says he’s watching the Turners. Jez’s uncle, Doc, suggests that to her mother, Janey, that he teach the twins about rootworking so they can protect themselves. After much deliberation, she agrees. He starts teaching them immediately.

The next day is the first day of school, and Jez and Jay are not in the same class because Jez skipped a grade. The teacher reads a poem by Langston Hughes, and a new student named Susie sits with Jez at lunch; Jez is often teased and alone. That day, Doc also tells Jay and Jez that it’s important for them to stick together because they come from a family of rootworkers. They paint the house “haint blue” to protect it from spirits (51). That night, Sheriff Edwards stops by and apologizes for Deputy Collins’s behavior, but Janey knows he won’t punish the deputy.

At school the next day, Jez is teased for learning rootwork, and Doc tells her that some want to forget about rootwork because it is closely tied to their enslaved ancestors. Later, she and Jay play near the marsh, and it seems like something is holding her down. Using the paint stirrer with the paint used to keep spirits away, Jez is finally able to free herself. When they get back, Janey and Doc celebrate the twins’ birthday. That night, Jez’s doll comes to life and moves off the bed. Jez wakes Jay and they follow the doll outside. They discover a patch of darkness that wishes them a happy birthday. They run into Doc’s cabin, and Doc helps them to realize that it is Gran’s spirit coming to visit them for their birthday. She tells them to “raise the family” right before she returns to the spirit world (114).

The other students continue to frustrate Jez, and Doc explains that he and Janey were also teased. He keeps teaching Jez and Jay about rootworking and says that it sometimes means harming other animals. Jez doesn’t like this.

Jez and Susie grow closer, but Jez also feels distant from Jay. One day after school, a spirit possesses Jay, asking for help, and Jez finds a coyote stuck in a trap. Even though she knows her mother and Doc would let it die, she helps it escape. It turns out that the creature is a wolf. A few days later, she hears Janey arguing with the sheriff about it. Janey thinks that Deputy Collins placed it there since it’s the family’s trap, and Doc didn’t lay it. She worries that the deputy is trying to injure one of them.

The same day, Jez goes down to the marsh again, and she is tricked by a spirit in the form of a doll, who tries to pull her into the water. She calms herself, allowing her spirit to escape her body. Using her power, she causes a ripple in the water, and Jay and Doc help her body escape, with her spirit returning to it.

Soon after, Jez finds Jay making a blood oath with another boy after school and wonders why he wants a brother. They fight and reconcile. Jez also starts practicing leaving her body and exploring the land around their property. One night, she feels like she’s being pulled toward the sky and finds Doc. It turns out a spirit is in her body with her. She allows her spirit to float high into the sky, and the other spirit separates from her, then brings her to Zar, where Jez plays with the other spirits until Doc calls her back. When she gets back, she discovers that several pages are missing from the rootworking notebook she keeps, realizing that Susie stole them.

That night, Deputy Collins drives around the Turner house and throws something at the window before leaving.

The next day, Jez and Jay discover that Susie is a boo-hag when a creature steps out of her skin. While the creature is gone, they take the skin and pour salt on it so that it won’t be able to reenter. However, watching the creature try to pick off each piece of salt, Jez grows sympathetic. She learns that Susie became her friend so that she could figure out how to find a piece of her skin that had been stolen by a rootworker. With a piece missing, she’s trapped on the island, even though her family has already left it. Jez convinces Doc to pour water on the skin to wash away the salt, saving Susie. She also promises to help find the missing piece of skin. Doc and Jay are hesitant, since boo-hags typically harm rootworkers. However, Jez persists, realizing that Gran was the one to take the piece of skin and use it as a headwrap for Dinah, the doll. She returns the skin to Susie, who promises to come help if Jez calls.

The next day, when Jez and Jay get home for school, Janey and Doc take them to church for a service honoring the late President John F. Kennedy. Upset that a man who wanted to make life better for Black people is now dead, Janey weeps and goes to talk to Gran at her grave. Doc brings the kids home.

On Thanksgiving, Jez and Jay each feel that something is going to happen. Doc agrees, and then his cabin explodes. Deputy Collins blew it up. He demands that Doc come outside, and Janey resists at first, grabbing a gun. Doc convinces her to let him go. When he steps outside, Deputy Collins admits to setting the trap that caught the wolf. He points his gun at Doc and throws him to the ground. He also admits to killing Daniel Turner, Janey’s husband and Jez and Jay’s father. Jez runs out of the house and lets her spirit be lifted from her body. She cries out for help, and the wolf she saved comes running, bringing other wolves with it. Susie also appears and attacks Deputy Collins with the wolves. They save Doc while Deputy Collins is pulled into the forest by the wolves. The next day, the sheriff comes by, wondering what happened to the deputy and certain that rootwork is behind it. Janey does not give him information, and Jez knows they can’t tell anyone.

The novel closes with a funeral for Daniel Turner, even though they don’t have his body. Jez stands together with her family, feeling more connected to her family, ancestors, and magic.