Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Representation: Nigerian cast and setting
Published on: 22nd October 2024
Goodreads
A powerful Nigeria-set horror 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’. For readers of Tananarive Due, Chikodili Emelumadu and Paul Tremblay.
Bata, an 11-year-old girl tormented by nightmares, wakes up one night to find herself standing sentinel before her cousin’s door. 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.
A supernatural possession helps Bata battle and vanquish the vengeful ghost bride, and following a botched exorcism, she is transported to Ibaja-La, the realm of dead brides. There, she receives secret powers to fight malevolent 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.
By turns touching and terrifying, this is vivid supernatural horror story of family drama, long-held secrets, possession, death - and what lies beyond.
I’m always looking for stories that draw on or use folklore and mythology I’m not familiar with, and this sounds like a great example! All the early reviews are full of love for Onoh’s take on Nigerian ghost brides and Ibaja-La, neither of which I’ve ever come across before.
T. L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights series convinced me that you can absolutely have Adult books with young protagonists, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for more of them. Bata, the main character of Where the Dead Brides Gather, is only eleven! And yet this isn’t a Middle Grade book. Given how beautifully complex and deep the best MG is, I don’t know how to define what the difference between MG and Adult is, but I’m very hopeful that Onoh nails it here.
I mean, the blurb sounds a little MG, doesn’t it? Young girl having adventures and saving her family? But this is Horror/Dark Fantasy and Adult, so presumably it’s going to look and feel quite different to something like Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. And that’s inherently interesting to me, how similar ideas can be wildly different when written for different age groups!
Early readers have also talked about how Where the Dead Brides Gather has quite a bit to say on the rights and roles of women in modern Nigeria, that it’s looking at ancient beliefs through a feminist lens. That would be a red flag for me if the author were white, but when it’s #ownvoices? Oh HELLS yes!
Very ready to become a convert of the Queen of African Horror!
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