Hello, hello bookworms!

I hope you’re all settling into the fall season well. Before I move on from solely reading horror books for spooky season, I wanted to read just one more with my friend Iseult Murphy.

We decided to read Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh.

Iseult and I bought our copies of this book earlier this year, but things got really busy. I’m glad we were able to get a chance to come back to this and give it a shot. This post will be my individual review, soon to be followed by a buddy read chat with Iseult.

Alright, let’s see how this book did!

Blurb

A powerful Nigeria-set tale of possession, malevolent ghosts, family tensions, secrets and murder from the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement and ‘Queen of African Horror’.

Bata, an eleven-year-old girl tormented by nightmares, wakes up one night to find herself standing sentinel before her cousin’s door. Her skin, hair, and eyes have turned a dazzling white colour, which even the medicine-man can’t heal. Her cousin is to get married the next morning, but only if she can escape the murderous attack of a ghost-bride, who used to be engaged to her groom.

Through the night, Bata battles the vengeful ghost and finally vanquishes it before collapsing. On awakening, she has no recollection of the events. And when the medicine-man tries to exorcise the entities clinging to her body as a result of her supernatural possession, Bata dies on the exorcism mat. There begins her journey. She is taken into Ibaja-La, the realm of dead brides, by Mmuọ-Ka-Mmuọ, the ghost-collector of the spirit realm. There she meets the ghosts of brides from every culture who died tragically before their weddings; both the kind and the malevolent. Bata is given secret powers to fight the evil ghost-brides before being sent back to the human realm, where she must learn to harness her new abilities as she strives to protect those whom she loves.

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I am an Amazon  and Bookshop.org affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

I really wanted to love this book, but after reading it I’m on the fence.

Young Bata lives in a small Nigerian village with her family. She’s always dealt with horrible nightmares, and one night something unbelievable happens. Her entire body has turned white in her sleep. Desperate to remedy her bizarre condition, her family takes her to a medicine man, where she is told by a powerful spirit that she must become a Bride Sentinel, an entity that protects brides to be from malevolent spirits.

What I liked most about this novel was the folklore and setting.  I enjoyed the uncomplicated atmosphere of the small village Bata lives in and the culture I got to absorb. The folklore was new to me and refreshing. I especially enjoyed Bata’s journey through the mystical land called Ibaja-La. The rich detail of this magical place captivated me.

I had my pros and cons with Bata. On one hand, she has moments of courage that I liked, but overall I felt that she didn’t progress enough. Her inner thoughts seemed too much the same throughout the novel and she came off as a scared little girl rather than a young woman on the cusp of adolescence. I wish that she would have shown more bravery throughout and questioned the powers that be.

The plot was a bit hit and miss with me. The parts of the book that explored Ibaja-La were really interesting, but after that things felt less interesting and a bit stagnant.

I’m not sure if I truly enjoyed this read, but if you give it a chance I hope you enjoy it!

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. Like what you see? Leave a tip!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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