Necklace with an Ayida Wedo charm

Victoria gives Nickie a gold necklace with an image of the Voodoo saint Ayida Wedo, a fertility symbol, on her birthday. Nickie loses the necklace in the middle of the novel when she stays at a hotel with Felix, hoping to lose her virginity, but the boy leaves her. She forgets her necklace on the bedside table when she leaves in a huff. At the end of the novel, Felix gives the necklace back, having retrieved it from the hotel room. Like the loa on the necklace, it represents fertility and sexuality in the novel.

Lanora

Lanora, a Voodoo saint, is also the ancestor of the Montrose women. She was born a free woman of color in New Orleans in the mid 1800s. Lanora fell in love with her best friend, who lived next door, but he was promised to another...