Worldwide Horror: Book Review - Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh
Genre: Horror Fantasy
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
What really stands out to me about this book is the way author Nuzo Onoh handles the POV – it’s so hard to really get a child’s POV to read in the same way a child would think, while giving the reader just enough to read between the lines and realise things beyond a child’s understanding. Onoh does it brilliantly here.
In Where the Dead Brides Gather, Bata, a young girl, deals with regular nightmares that no one seems to know how to deal with. The night before her cousin’s wedding, she wakes from her usual nightmares to find herself standing before her cousin’s door. Bata protects her cousin from a ghost-bride, and discovers she has the powers to fight them, soon gaining notoriety in the local area because of her powers. As she and her family struggles with the changes Bata is going through, she is taken from her home to Ibaja-La, a realm of ghost-brides, women who died before they were able to marry their partners.
The book is compelling, and I loved the descriptions of Ibaja-La, a place where dead brides can relax, make friends, and even enjoy the wedding offerings they never got to experience in life. There’s a mix of people here who Bata gradually gets to know, before she is sent back to continue her work and keep living brides protected from the more malicious ghost-brides. It’s a really bittersweet concept, where the kinder ghost-brides can posses their groom’s new brides on their wedding day and complete their vows. Bata’s role is to protect against those who might seek to harm the living.
Parts of it were slow and a little repetitive, in both the spirit and human realms, but for the most part I really liked the POV and plot. I loved Bata’s family relations, too; the relationship between her and her parents is complicated and, at times, difficult, and she has a lot of admiration for her stepmother, her father’s second wife and mother to Bata’s younger brothers, triplets who are known under one name. Throughout the novel, her relationships shift and change, with her family reacting in various ways to what is happening to her.
My only other minor gripe is that the ending felt a little rushed, like it was trying to wrap up too many things at the same time, but other than that it’s a well written horror with a strong fantasy element and a compelling POV character.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this ebook from Titan Books via NetGalley for review consideration.