Review of Grandma Josefina and the Heroic Boy

[Kenna Ridzi]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Grandma Josefina and the Heroic Boy" by Joseph P. Policape.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Grandma Josefina and the Heroic Boy by Joseph P. Policape tells the story of a conflict between a grandmother and her grandson. The book begins by describing Josefina’s life as a child. Born into a wealthy family, Josefina was introduced to voodoo magic at a premature age by her servant, Liliane. With Liliane’s help, Josefina began practicing magic so she could become a witch and join the community of witches in her small town in Haiti. After marrying the charming and polite Jacilien Cadet and making a family, the now Grandma Josefina meets her grandson, Jaclyn, who possesses spiritual powers. Throughout the book, Grandma Josefina and Jaclyn clash with each other because of Jaclyn’s power to expose the witch community.

This novel provided an ample amount of background for Grandma Josefina. The first few chapters were dedicated to telling the story of her childhood and explained her personality and her past. I was impressed with the author implementing a remarkably realistic internal conflict in Josefina and Jacilien. Both were very avid Christians and wanted to commit to being a nun and a priest. However, when they encountered each other, they both felt that they connected instantly, which led them to consider getting married. The author describes this conflict and the reasoning behind each perspective while keeping the story moving.

Unfortunately, this novel was quite difficult to follow as a reader. There was rarely an explanation for actions made by several characters. This was particularly troublesome because I couldn’t thoroughly comprehend what was happening in terms of conflict and relationships between the characters. The most significant example of this was Grandma Josefina and Jaclyn, who would fight many times throughout the story, but sometimes without reason. The straightforward answer to this concern would be that Grandma Josefina and Jaclyn are mortal enemies and were bound to confront each other whenever they saw each other. On the contrary, this wasn’t always the case. Every so often, Grandma Josefina and Jaclyn were perfectly civil towards each other for unknown reasons. This puzzled me as to what their genuine relationship was.

To add to the confusion, this story moved very rapidly. It seemed almost as if the author had written his first draft and had merely wanted to publish the story without making sure it was good quality. Finally, I found more than ten typos and grammatical errors throughout the book. In fact, the sheer amount of errors in the novel made me struggle to finish reading. Because of these negative attributes, I cannot rate this book higher than two out of four stars.

I would recommend this story to anyone interested in voodoo magic or witches paired with family drama. Because of the amount of effort it takes to read and comprehend this book, it would be most suitable for mature adult readers.

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Grandma Josefina and the Heroic Boy
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[Astral Magi]

It sounds like a compelling story and I think one shouldn't judge the author too harshly for characters that are fighting one moment and civil to each other the next, since this often does happen. A pity about the typos you mentioned though. Thank you for a thorough review.

[RHD]

I think I'd probably pass on this one. I'm uninterested in voodoo magic, plus the plot and editing seems a little bit sloppy. Well-done review, kridz21!

[KarFulMar]

I enjoy stories of the supernatural in general, but this seems more focused on relationships, specifically between the Grandmother and the child, without really explaining how that relationship developed. This review makes me believe that the story line wasn't well thought out, so I think I won't expend my reading time on this one.
Thank you for the review.