Rating: 
Summary: Deep, really deep.
Review: Not since Resurrecting Mingus, have I read a book that has moved me as much as Rainelle Burton's The Root Worker.Ellen's story is a familar story, of the girl left behind. Hers is a story of physical, mental, and sexual abuse, that trancends the ordinary dysfunctional family. This unique tale is told in the voice of a girl whose voice has been muted to nearly everyone except her imaginary friend Clarissa. Even through the midst of angst and lonliness, Ellen story is vivid, uplifting, and somewhat humerous at times. Burton's done a wonderful thing in this story. She let us peep into the lives of an extraordinary, reluctant, heroine. Her imagery and symbolism is reminiscent of Alice Walker. If you want a book to read that's thoughtful, extremely well written, and even mystical, then this book will not dissapoint.
Rating:
Summary: good work rainelle!!
Review: remarkable first novel, the root worker, holds your interest from beginning to end. this book is filled with characters that you love and hate at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: AN AFFECTING DEBUT
Review: Think Toni Morrison or Alice Walker and you have a concept of the quality of Rainelle Burton's affecting debut novel, which is based on true life events but is not autobiographical. It is 1960s Detroit, Michigan, a hard scrabble urban community where belief in voodoo is rife - the frightened go to root workers, voodoo priestesses, trading food money for cures to banish hexes. Eleven year old Ellen is a black girl whose mentally deficient mother believes the child is possessed by an evil spirit. Her father is a lackadaisical soul who doesn't protest when the Woman or mother consults a root worker who is soon all powerful in the family. Ellen finds no protection at home from the priestess's frightening directives nor from the nuns at the Catholic school she attends. It is only through the kindness of a neighbor that the young girl may be able to escape her harrowing existence and discover a life of her own. While Ms. Burton has painted a haunting reminder of a desperate community and desolate lives, "The Root Worker" is also a story of hope and the triumph of good over evil.
Rating:
Summary: AN AFFECTING DEBUT
Review: Think Toni Morrison or Alice Walker and you have a concept of the quality of Rainelle Burton's affecting debut novel, which is based on true life events but is not autobiographical. It is 1960s Detroit, Michigan, a hard scrabble urban community where belief in voodoo is rife - the frightened go to root workers, voodoo priestesses, trading food money for cures to banish hexes. Eleven year old Ellen is a black girl whose mentally deficient mother believes the child is possessed by an evil spirit. Her father is a lackadaisical soul who doesn't protest when the Woman or mother consults a root worker who is soon all powerful in the family. Ellen finds no protection at home from the priestess's frightening directives nor from the nuns at the Catholic school she attends. It is only through the kindness of a neighbor that the young girl may be able to escape her harrowing existence and discover a life of her own. While Ms. Burton has painted a haunting reminder of a desperate community and desolate lives, "The Root Worker" is also a story of hope and the triumph of good over evil.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the "typical" book
Review: This book was not at all what I expected. After reading the first page I was extremely confused and by the end of the book I was upset that I had wasted my time reading it. The book was written in such a way that did not seem to flow and make sense. References were made to things that didn't make sense, for instance, I was halfway through the book before I finally understood the reference to "GLUE", and I'm still fuzzy on it. I should have stopped after that first confusing page. But after looking at these other reviews that don't share my opinion, I see that maybe this book is on another level of fiction that I'm not used to- maybe "science" fiction-especially after reading the next to last chapter. Such a waste of my valuable reading time.
Rating:
Summary: Searching for Glue
Review: This is a hard book to read. Right from the start, the reader must accept the loss of hope as the road to salvation. Staying hopeful is a sure way to come to disaster. Rainelle Burton has written a beautifully evocative story about true empowerment, using the narrative voice of a young african-american girl in a sharply bifurcated world. The young protagonist, Ellen, shuttles between her home, where she lives with a brother who sexually abuses her, a mother who she may only address as "The Woman," and a weak-willed, philandering father who she knows as "The Husband," and St. Agnes, the parish school she attends, with its wimpled nuns and robed priests. However, in Ellen's world, there are no saviors in the church or school, and there are no miracles in the potions dispensed by the root worker who The Woman pays for curatives. Ellen calmly observes the dichotomies between what she believes her life might be and what it actually is throughout the story. She tries to make sense of her surroundings, searching for "glue" to hold things together, and to provide her with the safe haven she desires. The reader sees through Ellen's bruised and swollen eyes as stark episode after episode of poverty and ignorance reveal themselves. As readers, we share Ellen's pain and humiliation in the name of hope. Ellen sees her own battered face and body in a shop window and identifies the girl she sees as "Clarissa," to whom she addresses many of her observations. Clarissa is Medusa-haired, puffy-eyed, scratched, and soiled, a battered confidante for a lonely, frightened little girl. What the reader discovers is that for Ellen, as for any child trapped by poverty and abuse, the only way to survive is to stop trying to find congruence in the absurdity surrounding her. This is a remarkable book, and a remarkable outing for a first-time author. Burton's voice rings with truth, even if it's a truth we might not want to know. We can't help but admire her unflinching ability to illuminate the harsh realities of the lives in which root working still figure, and her tenderness toward Ellen. I can't wait to read Burton's next offering.
Rating:
Summary: Searching for Glue
Review: This is a hard book to read. Right from the start, the reader must accept the loss of hope as the road to salvation. Staying hopeful is a sure way to come to disaster. Rainelle Burton has written a beautifully evocative story about true empowerment, using the narrative voice of a young african-american girl in a sharply bifurcated world. The young protagonist, Ellen, shuttles between her home, where she lives with a brother who sexually abuses her, a mother who she may only address as "The Woman," and a weak-willed, philandering father who she knows as "The Husband," and St. Agnes, the parish school she attends, with its wimpled nuns and robed priests. However, in Ellen's world, there are no saviors in the church or school, and there are no miracles in the potions dispensed by the root worker who The Woman pays for curatives. Ellen calmly observes the dichotomies between what she believes her life might be and what it actually is throughout the story. She tries to make sense of her surroundings, searching for "glue" to hold things together, and to provide her with the safe haven she desires. The reader sees through Ellen's bruised and swollen eyes as stark episode after episode of poverty and ignorance reveal themselves. As readers, we share Ellen's pain and humiliation in the name of hope. Ellen sees her own battered face and body in a shop window and identifies the girl she sees as "Clarissa," to whom she addresses many of her observations. Clarissa is Medusa-haired, puffy-eyed, scratched, and soiled, a battered confidante for a lonely, frightened little girl. What the reader discovers is that for Ellen, as for any child trapped by poverty and abuse, the only way to survive is to stop trying to find congruence in the absurdity surrounding her. This is a remarkable book, and a remarkable outing for a first-time author. Burton's voice rings with truth, even if it's a truth we might not want to know. We can't help but admire her unflinching ability to illuminate the harsh realities of the lives in which root working still figure, and her tenderness toward Ellen. I can't wait to read Burton's next offering.
| 
