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Bad Juju

by Dina Rae (Goodreads Author)

4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 · rating details · 22 ratings · 12 reviews

A Haitian bokor mentors two teens in the dark arts. Their spells backfire.

Lucien Nazaire flees his Haitian homeland and meanders around the United States for decades. He settles in a Wisconsin trailer park filled with elderly tenants. He meets Jake and hires him for odd household jobs. As their relationship progresses, Lucien invites the boy into the world of Voodoo.
Jake L...more

Kindle Edition, 1, 269 pages

Published September 7th 2012 by Amazon

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Apr 18, 2013 Ronda Tutt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, mystery, paranormal, romance, suspense, young-adult, thriller

Chilling & Memorizing!

What a fantastic read! Dina Rae has created a world where the unimaginable has taken place. A world where everything you thought you knew about faith, religion, science, culture, and the unknown paranormal is tested beyond its limits and glorified in a truth you do not want to believe. In this so so real like world described on the pages I felt as if I was watching a movie, the action and thrill of excitement had me glued to the pages and I didn't want to put the book d...more Chilling & Memorizing!

What a fantastic read! Dina Rae has created a world where the unimaginable has taken place. A world where everything you thought you knew about faith, religion, science, culture, and the unknown paranormal is tested beyond its limits and glorified in a truth you do not want to believe. In this so so real like world described on the pages I felt as if I was watching a movie, the action and thrill of excitement had me glued to the pages and I didn't want to put the book down. The characters were believable and convincing as my emotions grew sympathy and in an all in awe shocking gasp at every nightmare stowed upon each character.

The writing is truly brilliant not with just the plot of the story but with the different elements the author has combined into this amazing story. Get ready for your high school teenage lustful experiments (acts of sex), their jealousy, and their social status turning into revengeful craziness (language, fighting, and death to include suicide) . Where a parent's reality of clinging to their religion (prayers) or scientific reasoning (psychic help) of thinking god and doctors are the only cure for evilness but beware, a bad case of Voodoo (Bad JuJu) has a power of its own as it throws a society into a mix of a paranormal you never would of ever knew existed. So get ready for the rise of the dead (zombies), shapeshifting, and the powers of a dark magic that only a Bokor can deliver in a mixture of love spells, voodoo dolls, and possessions of ones body and mind.

I'm am still in awe thinking about the ending as it has left me with a wealth of knowledge to investigate on my own. The author's research has me intrigued about the Haitian Culture and their practice of Voodoo. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a great mystified, horrifying, paranormal, and crazy messed up romance that will keep you spell bound for months on end. I truly look forward to reading more works by this awesome author. She is one of my favorites.

Excellent Read!

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4 likes · like · see review

Jan 31, 2013 Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: september-2012-reads, september-reading-challenge-ntoyab, armchair-great-lakes

Blog Tour Stop Oct. 1-review shortly

Review of Bad Juju by Dina Rae
Reviewed for Full Moon Bites Blog Tours for Oct. 1 2012

An intricate novel of contemporary dysfunction, evangelical Christianity, and Vodoun, “Bad Juju” riveted my attention from the very beginning, as I quickly discovered the apt nature of the title. A conglomeration of interwoven lives, histories, present events, psychology, possession, and divergent viewpoints melds together to form a cohesive and engrossing entirety.
Jake is a h...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Brandy Jeffus rated it 5 of 5 stars

WOW! Talk about a complex story line!! If I could get inside Dina Rae's head, I'm sure I would be completely blown away! This was an INCREDIBLE story from start to finish. There were so many twists and turns that I stopped trying to guess what was going on

This is my second story to read from Dina Rae (the first one is HERE,) and I was not disappointed at all (obviously huh? LOL) I loved the characters, you feel like Jake and Henry are just good boys who unfortunately met the wrong person, you kn...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Rhonda Kachur rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dina Rae's Bad Juju is an interesting mix of religion, the supernatural, and terror with a writing style all her own. The story revolves around a Haitian Voodoo Bokor named Lucien, whom fled to America, and his practice of Voodoo. He meets Jake, a young impressionable boy with a troubled family life, and begins to teach him about the arts. Jake bring his friend Henry, who has Asperger's Syndrome, along. The two boys begin to use the Voodoo they have learned irresponsibly to get revenge on others...more Dina Rae's Bad Juju is an interesting mix of religion, the supernatural, and terror with a writing style all her own. The story revolves around a Haitian Voodoo Bokor named Lucien, whom fled to America, and his practice of Voodoo. He meets Jake, a young impressionable boy with a troubled family life, and begins to teach him about the arts. Jake bring his friend Henry, who has Asperger's Syndrome, along. The two boys begin to use the Voodoo they have learned irresponsibly to get revenge on others who have wronged them somehow. When Lucien learns of Henry's upcoming trip to Haiti, thanks to his VERY Christian parents going there on a mission, he tries to send a message to his family still in Haiti through Henry...only to have him disappear somewhere in the country. Dark forces are at work against them as they learn Voodoo it not to be toyed with (a main point of the book that I very much liked). Dina has done some good research on the Voodoo culture, although she does stretch it a little bit for the purposes of the story (or at least it seems to. I have read quite a bit about New Orleans Voodoo but not so much on Haitian Voodoo, so I cannot be sure how far it has been stretched...but I know it has been a least a little bit for the purposes of enhancing the tale and it works out well). The tale has a lot of twists and turns with periods of "quiet" reading in between to rest the reader up for the next big event, and I like that. And those events are very well done. They were filled with lot's of great action that kept me turning the page. The character development is a mixed bag though, with some being fleshed out with great care and others not being paid enough attention (Henry's family being the main characters I wished there was more work on. They got plenty of "book time", but they didn't feel as real as the others). One more note is that this is definitely an adult book. While not over done, there is some sex and violence that younger eyes should not be reading. All in all, Bad Juju is a very good read and deserves a little love.

This review was done by myself for Dollar Bin Horror. A free copy was given for this purpose(less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Ophelia Julien rated it 5 of 5 stars

All Good Fun Until the Zombie Shows Up

Earlier this year, I read and reviewed Dina Rae’s Halo of the Damned. Given that the subject matter of that book involved fallen angels, demons, and a blood-thirsty ancient cult, it seemed to be about the darkest story Ms. Rae could have to offer. I was wrong.

Bad Juju is the tale of what happens when the world of a handful of high school students and their families collides with that of an elderly Haitian bokor, or Voodoo priest, who has been incongruously...more All Good Fun Until the Zombie Shows Up

Earlier this year, I read and reviewed Dina Rae’s Halo of the Damned. Given that the subject matter of that book involved fallen angels, demons, and a blood-thirsty ancient cult, it seemed to be about the darkest story Ms. Rae could have to offer. I was wrong.

Bad Juju is the tale of what happens when the world of a handful of high school students and their families collides with that of an elderly Haitian bokor, or Voodoo priest, who has been incongruously displaced to a trailer park in Hayward, Wisconsin. The bokor, named Lucien Nazaire, knows he is coming to the end of his unnaturally long life and is looking for an heir to the dark wisdom he has amassed, for Lucien is a practitioner of the darkest form of Voodoo: grave robbing, dismemberment, shape-shifting, soul-stealing, zombie-making, everything malevolent that can be imagined.

Enter Jake La Rue and Henry Novak, two high school students who have formed an unlikely bond over Jake’s loner status and Henry’s Asperger Syndrome. Jake lives at the same trailer park as Lucien and has befriended a man he sees as a stately and gracious old gent from Haiti. Lucien is all that, but once Jake brings Henry to meet the bokor, the truth starts to be revealed.

The first thing Lucien teaches his eager students is how to make a voodoo doll, and it’s all downhill from there. Even the basic, hopeful love spells the boys perform bend to the dark side with unforeseen and fatal consequences that affect the boys and some of their classmates. By the time Henry travels to Haiti with his family for a post-earthquake mission trip, the road to hell is not only paved and plastered with the best of intentions, it has morphed into the steepest of slippery slopes.

Ms. Rae clearly relishes gifting her readers with horrific scenarios, each successive image somehow just a wee bit worse than the previous one. But all is not gloom and doom. The light in this book comes from Jake’s sweet, earnest, somehow untainted spirit, and the love he holds for the woman who is married to his abusive uncle. Through all the dark and shadow in this story, Ms. Rae manages to interlace a bright thread of love and romance.

Fans of the dark-and-roses type of fiction will enjoy curling up with Bad JuJu, from the opening crisis to the redemptive resolution as the story winds down. Or almost winds down. At the end, Ms. Rae abandons the roses to hand the reader one last slice of darkness to savor when the story has ended, which nicely illustrates the point of this genre: one final nightmare to take away when all is said and done. Enjoy!
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Oct 05, 2012 Tee loves Kyle Jacobson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-must-reads, fmb-blog-tours, oct-2012

First I have to say I have read several books from Dina and each one I love! She has a gift for writing and she knows how to bring a world together and keep you there riveted to your seat until the very end. Thank you Full Moon Bites Blog Tours for allowing me to be a part of this EPIC tour.

Bad Juju is a combination of suspense, history, and life lessons.In this story we meet Lucien who is a Haitian Bokor which is a voodoo sorcerer. He is fleeing his country Haiti and winds up in Wisconsin in a...more

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Nov 30, 2012 Laura Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tom and Jessica Novak are proud to be doing God’s work. They’ve traveled to Port au-Prince as part of a missionary group with others of their church. They’re going to help with rebuilding the island after the 7.0 earthquake that shook all of Haiti, causing massive destruction.

Their 15-year-old son Henry’s Asperger’s Syndrome had them questioning their decision. He’s intelligent and quite functional, but changes in routine, surroundings and new faces could cause problems. Henry doesn’t communicat...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Lizzy Lessard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, reviewed

Overview: Dina Rae has a very unique writing style. The book feels more like a screenplay than a novel in parts. The dialogue is over-the-top dramatic at parts, but with the dark nature of stories such as Bad Juju, there’s a lot of reasons for the characters to be upset enough to validate the ample use of exclamation points. The way the author switched from over-the-top psychological horror to back story and new character point of view was frustrating for the hardcore horror lover in me. I wante...more Overview: Dina Rae has a very unique writing style. The book feels more like a screenplay than a novel in parts. The dialogue is over-the-top dramatic at parts, but with the dark nature of stories such as Bad Juju, there’s a lot of reasons for the characters to be upset enough to validate the ample use of exclamation points. The way the author switched from over-the-top psychological horror to back story and new character point of view was frustrating for the hardcore horror lover in me. I wanted the gore and horror to never stop. However, for readers who don’t read primarily horror novels, you will appreciate a change of scenery after reading some of the most disturbing parts of this novel.

The descriptions and scene setups are so well done that I forgot I was reading a book. It felt like I was watching reality TV, although I doubt anyone would want to star in this novel. Don’t get too attached to the characters as not all of them make it to the end. Overall, I think Bad Juju will appeal to readers who like both psychological horror novels and dark stories without the gore (although I would still rate this book R for sex, nasty dead people, and violence).

Characters: I liked how complex and colorful Jake’s family was. There’s a couple of white trash stereotypes in the beginning but as the story progresses each character is really fleshed out and the stereotypes forgotten. Although Henry’s family got nearly as much screen time, they weren’t as interesting and some of them fell flat. I was surprised how much attention Britney and Rio had in the story – and even though they were minor characters, they felt unique and as far from the head cheerleader/jock personalities and stereotypes as you can get.

Plot: The story hops around quite a bit, which didn’t bug me when I read Halo of the Damned by Dina Rae. Since this book was more of a hardcore horror book, I felt like the scenes ended prematurely sometimes. I wanted the creepiness and the gore to keep going and for the scare/creepy factor to be more consistent. The twists in this book kept me guessing until the last few chapters. Despite my disappointment in the horror, the story was so compelling and addictive to read. Dina Rae definitely comes up with some creative dark tales. I can say with certainty that I’ve never read a novel like this one.

Ending: I have some mixed feelings about the ending. I liked what Jake and Lucien were doing with the Voodoo, but I was really tired of Henry and his mother Jess. I wished for many bad things to happen to the latter pair and not all those bad things came to pass. I did like how Rio’s story ended. That was a nice twist.(less)

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Dec 13, 2012 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Kindle Version free via author for honest review

Can you say amazingly scary good?!? That, my fellow readers, is what this book is! I took a particular interest in this book at first, not only because it sounded like an interesting and different read for me, but also because I have a personal interest in Haiti and it's customs, such as Voodoo. I have relatives that live in Haiti and have taught me Haitian background on Voodoo and how people there view this as their religion. Anyway, I thought it...more Kindle Version free via author for honest review

Can you say amazingly scary good?!? That, my fellow readers, is what this book is! I took a particular interest in this book at first, not only because it sounded like an interesting and different read for me, but also because I have a personal interest in Haiti and it's customs, such as Voodoo. I have relatives that live in Haiti and have taught me Haitian background on Voodoo and how people there view this as their religion. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to see how the author portrayed this in this book.

From the first few pages I fell into this book head first. I was hooked and couldn't wait to read on in it. The characters of Lucien, Jake, and Henry are fantastic and very well developed and likable. Lucien, having come from Haiti, has a special interest in Jake and Henry from the time he meets them. He wants someone to carry on his Voodoo ways and set something right that he did very wrong long ago. When Henry and his family set their sights on Haiti for a few weeks in the summer after an earthquake has left the people there in dire need of help, Lucien sets out to have Henry do an errand of sorts for him while he is there. Henry is not like other boys his age, he has Asperger's Syndrome, which makes it hard for him to stray outside of normal routines or go places, but he also tends to fixate on historical things and information. This is all what leads Henry into talking his family into going to help through a mission trip through their church. The family goes thinking it may be good for Henry. They will never be more wrong. While in Haiti Henry is found unresponsive and unable to even eat/drink on his own or communicate. The family hurries home, only to be led to a psychologist for help. Lucien comes with Jake to visit and knows exactly what is wrong, Henry has some other being inside him. To a religious family like Henry's though, Voodoo is not an option or something that is real, much less part of the reason Henry has become the way he has. What really happened to Henry in Haiti? What can Lucien and Jake do about it now? Can Henry battle the being that is inside him to come back to be his "normal" self again? How can you fight something you don't see or even think is real? What will become of Henry if he is not helped correctly? Lucien is an old man, will he live long enough to help Henry if he can?

The story is much more in depth than even I have described or the blurb above from goodreads has described, which makes it all the more interesting and better. I don't want to share too much, for fear of spoiling it. How can a book be bad at all though that involves Voodoo, bringing people back from the dead, family drama, friendship, love spells, and mystery?? This book was wonderfully written too, never a dull moment or moment that makes the reader feel that they don't want to come back to read more. It left me up until all hours of the morning and on the edge of my seat until I could read it again. My favorite characters have to be Henry and Lucien. I loved Henry from the first minute I "met" him in the book. He is such a special boy, who just happens to have special needs. Some may think this book sounds a bit "taboo", but you really need to give it a chance and pick it up to read, you will not be sorry you did! I can't say enough how much I loved and enjoyed this book! Definitely a must read and I highly recommend it.

5/5 Stars!!! (less)

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Oct 11, 2012 Nancy (The Avid Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dina-rae, fmb-author-promtions, read-in-2012

The following review is my opinion and not a paid review. I received a copy of Bad Juju from the author via Full Moon Bites Book Tours for review.

Lucien Nazaire left his home and his family in Haiti and came to America to escape death. He practices the Voodoo religion and had gotten himself in danger with some of the things that he did with the religion. Lucien is an old man and has been cheating death. He knows his time is almost up and he needs someone that he can trust to leave all of his sec...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished

"Bad Juju" is a fantastic read where religion and science come together. Within a well developed plot, Dina Rae brings her characters to life in this paranormal tale filled with mystic and a bit of horror. I truly had a hard time putting this book down and highly recommend it everyone who loves the mystical paranormal world.

This review is based on a complimentary copy which was provided for an honest review.

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About Dina Rae

Dina Rae is a new author that is here to stay. As a former teacher, she brings an academic element to her work. Her research on the Yezidi religion and love of art inspired her story telling for Halo of the Damned.
Her second novel, The Last Degree, is a fictionalized account of the Freemason’s role in the New World Order. Dina's grandfather was the Most Worshipful of his lodge. The subject has al...more

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