Jasmin M Johnson

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.

Hoodoo is old North American folk magic, born from African spiritual traditions brought over by slaves. Over the centuries it incorporated Native American and European influences using what worked and discarding what did not. What is left is an adaptable, powerful magical system that works.