Title: The Ghost of Bertha Mae: Part 1
Author: Carolyn Virginia Parnell
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc
ISBN: 978-1646285914
Pages: 462
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Hollywood Book Reviews
A little girl born in poverty to an abusive mother rises to what seems to be a successful womanhood – until she begins to be tormented by an evil presence, in this debut novel by author Carolyn Virginia Parnell.
Rose Marie, her sister and two brothers live in cramped quarters with no bathroom in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s. They often go without food when their mother Bertha Mae misuses their welfare payments. If Rose Marie is disobedient, even in the slightest way, Bertha Mae insults her and beats her tirelessly with a belt. Older brother Frederick takes responsibility for his sister one night when one of Bertha Mae’s many male visitors tries to rape the young teen. After Bertha Mae dies suddenly and mysteriously, covered in her own blood, Rose Marie finds a letter in which she learns that her name is Yvette, not Rose Marie; in her letter, Bertha Mae tries to excuse herself for some of her bad deeds without expressing the slightest remorse. A top student, Yvette is able to leave the South, go to college in Seattle, and meet David, who falls in love with her and asks her hand in marriage. But by that time, the young woman is being haunted, chased, confronted, by a “haint” – the disembodied spirit of Bertha Mae that wants to take her young body and live again through it. How will Yvette finally free herself from Bertha Mae’s hateful, horrible grip and enjoy the life and love she deserves?
Parnell’s life bears some parallels to her central character: born in Selma and having migrated to Washington State, the author has worked with youth and received community recognition. Her gift of writing is apparent in this wide-ranging saga, encompassing social and cultural events and lesser known facts regarding the Civil Rights era and its aftermath, while keeping an eerie mystery on the boil and giving the reader thorough insight into the mind and heart of her intelligent but deeply scarred heroine. She handles a mass of detail – family history, romance, exotic locations and the experience of African American people during a testing time in US history – while always guiding the reader back to the terrors faced by Rose Marie as a child facing her mother’s cruelty, and Yvette as an adult genuinely terrified of a her mother’s ghost – not a figment of imagination but a visible, malevolent and constantly threatening spirit. Parnell’s work is certain to attract readers of mystery, fantasy and ghost stories, with the promise of an equally vibrant sequel to come.