Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh

I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price – £9.99 paperback £7.99 Kindle ebook

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

There is a temptation for some readers to dismiss tales that have a child as a main character as children’s fiction or YA. This would be a huge mistake. Its always worth asking why is a child being used as a character and also we should look at the overall story before making such a decision. In Nuzo Onoh’s fascinating horror fantasy novel Where The Dead Brides Gather we have a story that centres around a child who is given a remarkable set of powers but she is plunged into distinctly adult experiences that help us explore the wider world to explore quite serious themes and we soon realise this is a very dark but powerful tale indeed.

It is 1977 and in Nigeria there is a small village where Bata lives with her father, his two wives and their assorted children. Bata though has been plagued by nightmares that wake the family every night. She had a terrible fall that appeared to kill her, but she fortunately recovered bar dreams of strange creatures chasing her across a wasteland. However, the imminent marriage of a cousin creates something very strange. A horse acting out of the ordinary and various other strange events culminate in Bata going deathly white, tall and indeed having to battle the ghost of an evil bride intent on harm. Bata is revealed as the new Bride-Sentinel – unusually one still alive and she is taken by a powerful spirit to learn new skills. But her return shows great power can actually only lead to more heartache and more ghosts to battle.

This novel is a great example of fantastic storytelling and by making Bata our narrator we are getting firstly the ability to be told how this world works just as much as Bata is experiencing it all at the same time and equally as we are adults, we are seeing things that Bata has not yet got the experience to weigh up what really may be going on. In many ways we are able to see the bigger danger and the nastier side of humanity that is being revealed here and knowing a kind 11 year old girl is in the midst of it all makes us get more invested and afraid for Bata’s survival.

We get to feel bata’s initial confusion from the eve of the wedding and very quickly Onoh makes us see this is not a children’s tale. The arrival of the ghost is unsettling, very scary and the impacts mean Bata is physically transformed and actually in the process scares her family. We get to watch magic versus ghost at work and also understand the concept of the dead bride spirits – women who before they married either died by accident, disease or suicide and so are stuck in a spirit realm known as Ibaja-La to await reincarnation. Some brides though are resentful of their lost chance and look to possess other women to create harm. For these a Ghost-Sentinel is expected to police and return or destroy ghosts who act out of line. Unexpectedly it is poor Bata who has now got this power which she definitely was not seeking nor has the life experience yet to fully understand her role.

Onoh uses the middle act of the book to take Bata to Ibaja-La where we get to understand the magic, the ghost brides and its strangely one of the more peaceful elements of the book. Bata meets the brides, is treated with kindness and through an exercise learns more of her powers. But we are always conscious Bata is a small child terrified of doing the wrong thing and bringing shame to her and her own family. Bata is quick, resourceful and kind but we are not dealing with a Buffy-like superhero with quips and violence. Bata has a duty forced on her and it is not a question of will she do something she has to whether she wants to or not. Onoh has a sequence in this part of the story that shows Bata the dangerous bride spirits again and she is in genuine and quite terrifying danger which we can see coming just a little ahead of her. It’s a very clever bit of horror that we feel so responsible and scared for Bata as this part of the story unfurls into its powerful last acts.

It’s the final half of the book which really impressed me when we follow Bata returning to our world. It would have been very easy to just follow many a Chosen One story and just show Bata having exciting adventures, Instead Onoh gives a us a story that while delivers a supernatural threat and danger to face is much more exploring the culture and attitudes that women in the period were facing. This is less a clash of worlds but more the ending of the various attitudes and beliefs of the time. Bata’s family has Christian religion her mother’s side while her father follows Omenaanu, an ancient spiritual religion predating this in Nigeria. The society is sitting between the ancient and the modern. It is totally accepting that a husband can have two wives and this creates one while relatively happy family unit. But there are tensions between people and the later act focuses on Bata’s beloved step-mother Ola. Who teaches her to read and enjoy beauty products. This very polished and stylish woman though has a secret that plunges her and Bata into danger which reveals the darker side of the society.

If the ghost-brides can be eerie and terrifying I felt they were no match for how we see the uglier part of human nature being explored. Bata is delighted to find her father is treating her kindly at last but we as adults suspect now that he is told he has a powerful daughter who can bring the family wealth, this may be the bigger motive for his new temperament and indeed this is shown to be the case and not permanent. As bata is changed physically her experience we see while her family know it is not her fault, they all start to treat her as an outsider and punish her harshly until Ola’s secret id revealed and the events here are both brutal and tragic. How a society delights in taking people down and what we see planned as punishment is alarming and terrible and has devastating consequences for those affected even when perhaps the men are actually more at fault. Bata must experience this as a young child making the experience even more visceral and horrible this does lead to a final set piece of Bata using her mighty powers justly but it’s the things we have experienced prior that shape the future for Bata. In many ways the ghost-brides (even the evil ones) are all products of a society that make women think they have only one choice and punishes anyone out of live. The book’s code though shows Bata has learned a few things from the experiences useful for her own brighter future.

Where The Dead Brides gather is the best kind of dark tale that will scare but also, I think inform us both of a time and culture many of us are not aware of but raises wider questions about how any society still treats women, which as we know is nowhere near as equal as it should be. Thanks to Bata we get to see things with the simple clarity of a child and perhaps revisit our own world’s issues in the process. It is strongly recommended!