I recently finished Nuzo Onoh’s Where the Dead Brides Gather, which was precisely the kind of book I needed at this very moment. It’s a different kind of ghost story than I think most of my readers are accustomed to. Part magical realism, part fantasy; informed by Igbo folklore the book is a supernatural story of endurance and strength of women and community under patriarchy.
Set in a rural Nigerian village outside of Lagos in the 1970s, Where the Dead Brides Gather follows Bata, a 10-year-old girl who has experienced temporary death due to an accident. At the start of the story, Bata is plagued by nightmares, and there’s reason to believe they may be connected to her near-death experience. The bad dreams are so disruptive they cause her to sleepwalk, and wake her family. Her father is so upset she fears being sent away by him. This is all background, woven tightly throughout the opening where it’s established that Bata’s cousin Keziah is to be married and her village is hard at work in preparation.
On the eve of the wedding, Bata once again experiences nightmares and wakes to find herself sitting outside her cousin’s door transformed. Her skin is completely white like paint. Her father immediately takes her to the witch doctor for an exorcism.
It’s here that I should mention; all this is delivered in first-person narration. Onoh renders Bata’s voice with unwavering clarity. We get a real sense of childhood innocence, longing and wonder. We see the way she respects her mother, looks up to her stepmother, and fears her father. Her faith in Jesus, even in the face of gods, is unwavering. Early in the story, we see the way she longs for a life in Lagos. Bata idolizes her stepmother, Ọla, to the degree that Ọla calls Bata “minime,” and how this informs her worldview.
Through stepmother Ọla, Bata learns about rich Lagos city culture, and “pancake face” makeup, and it becomes Bata’s goal to be educated in Lagos too. As the story progresses, Bata is pulled into the supernatural realm, she finds herself in Ibaja-La, the eponymous place Where the Dead Brides Gather. Brides who die before their wedding go here to await their husband’s next marriage where they will get to possess his new bride, only for the wedding, and then move on in the afterlife where they will eventually be reincarnated with their twin flame.
To me, it seems Onoh is interested in intersections and liminality. Where the Dead Brides Gather explores many such thresholds and in betweens. We see living/dead, rich/poor, urban/rural, masculine/feminine, Black/white, and strong/weak. In Ibaja-La, these distinctions aren’t strict boundaries as in the mortal world, but part of a rich tapestry that bring us together.
The multi-cultural feeling of unity that permeates this afterlife of women sharing community over each others pain is an enticing picture of harmony across cultural and gender lines as there are male brides here too. This is a world for all, regardless of class in life, death reveals we are all equals.
Pain unites the dead brides and in it they find their strength. The afterlife becomes proof of a cosmopolitan world. It isn't all lovely, of course, there is a wasteland full of ‘unrepentants’ who've done horrible things without remorse. They pose a danger to the world of the living and Ibaja-La.
The horror in this book isn't overly gory or cruel, it’s a slow and eerie peek behind the veil that gets to you.As I’ve been reading a lot of grief-horror, I was glad to get to something more hopeful that offered an escape and a promise that better worlds aren’t only possible, but exist, even if they're beyond the veil so to speak.
Where the Dead Brides hit shelves back in November and is available today.
I know it's been a minute since Nocturne Books & Media was last active. For personal reasons, I needed a little break. I'm back, and the world is changing, but the mission is the same. Highlight and celebrate excellent works of speculative and dark fiction. If you're interested in Where the Dead Brides Gather, it can be purchased wherever books are sold, but as always, I'm going to link two St. Louis bookshops that Nocturne is NOT affiliated with but firmly believes deserve your loving patronage. Stay nocturnal.
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