The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

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

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price – £9.99 paperback £4.37 Kindle ebook

It is said that the Haddesleys have too much of the bog in their blood to live in the world. Living an isolated existence in the Appalachians, they observe strange rituals and worship the forest and mud that surrounds them.

When Charles, the patriarch of the family, reveals he is dying, his children rally around him, only to find their fraying bonds tearing apart one by one, and their beliefs upended. For Wenna, the only Haddesley to have ever escaped the forest, it means coming home to face difficult truths. For Charlie, the eldest son, his father’s death means facing up to new, terrifying responsibilities.

Because the bog is waiting, ever-growing, ever-hungry, and if the Haddesley children aren’t careful, they will awaken something they have tried to keep at bay for a century.

The sensation of being stuck is one we all sometimes feel in life. Stuck in a memory we can’t move from, a job we no longer enjoy or even a relationship no longer making us happy. The fear of change making things worse makes us stay where we are and can consume us. This is explored very skilfully through a dark mirror in Kay Chronister’s new modern gothic novel The Bog Wife where we go to the Appalachian area of the US and find a family as disturbingly trapped in their history as their land is trapped by an ever present bog.

In West Virgina sits the ruin of the Haddesley family home which has been there since the ancient settlers from Scotland crossed the ocean. The family fortunes though have dwindled and dwindled as have the land’s riches. The family Patriarch is dying, and an ancient ritual must soon be followed. His body placed in the bog which will release per the ancient covenant a bog wife to father the next patriarch’s children.

But all is not well. The eldest son Charles was injured in an accident and is ambivalent that he can become a father. His brother Percy has felt he is better positioned (as does his father) but he’s not sure how far he will go to take control. The eldest of them all Eda has been trying to keep the household together, but she feels she must now take her own drastic steps. The youngest daughter Nora just wants to stay in the home and manage her menagerie of damaged animals. Into this comes Wenna who fled many years ago, now with her own secrets, and while she comes to bury her father, she fears the past is coming back to haunt them.

I think the key to how well this works is how the Haddesley family come to life. They’re this mysterious bunch of hermits rarely going out into the modern world bar the odd shopping trip. They don’t exist in social security, no television, no healthcare and that’s the way they life it. They’re a southern gothic family cut off in many ways from the 21st century wearing generational hand-me downs in a house that is breaking apart and even has a fallen tree going through the roof. Every eldest child is always called Charles to highlight the lack of changes. It’s a perfect gothic setting added to with this dying bog next to it they tend and try to keep wet fighting a battle against encroaching vegetation. A slow-motion ruin not just of a building but the people inside it.

At a supernatural level we find there is a covenant from ancient days. The Haddesley family made with the mystical powers of the bog to ensure they could have children and more harvests. Rituals are passed down via the family ledger. There is a feeling of great history but also stagnancy that has tipped into something else. With the father’s passing things are now out of joint and possibly beyond repair. It sets up siblings who don’t act as a family but all acting on their own instincts. It’s not a tale of heroes and villains just quite damaged people who know little of the world thinking they know best and suffering the consequences of it. Charles and Percy as the two sons are technically in competition but Charles is clearly not interested in being a Patriarch and as we discover the extent of his injuries and lack of care who can blame him. Eda who is clearly competent gets dismissed as a woman but perhaps decides on a fairly reckless course of action. Against this group initially is Wenna, if this was a warmer tale she would come with her knowledge of the outside and bond them together, but Wenna is already traumatised by her past in the family and her experiences outside too have hurt her. She’s reluctant to share her knowledge and while keen to move on finds the dull routine of Haddesley lifer is quite hard to get away from even while she imagined what her family could be capable of. In some ways she seems to be sinking back into the more familiar role she once had.Tensions grow, schemes are held and none of them feel they can magically repair things. Something troubling is brewing.

That brings us to the two key turning points of the story. As the Bog Wife at the time of the the ritual does not appear that raises questions as to why the covenant is now broken. It sets up suspicions between the siblings as to who is not worthy but for Wenna it also adds to her suspicions about her father and the few memories of her mother. One revelation to come is very powerful and turns things on their head. In many ways the most horrific way of watching how this family has been stuck here for so long. There is though, another later reveal that brings back the supernatural elements, that for me has a few issues. In some ways it undercuts and slightly confuses the earlier reveal which is never really explained. It does though help to offer the family members a supernatural way forward but not necessarily one everyone would choose. Returning to the theme of being stuck this section allows each member of the family to decide where their heart truly lies. We leave them still with an uncertain future but a sense that finally there are options. It treads the line between horror and fantasy very skilfully and for the reader to decide if the right choices are made.

The Bog Wife is a really intriguing piece of dark gothic fantasy tinged with horror. It uses the setting and the characters to explore that feeling of lives being stuck and trapped but with its use of the supernatural approaches achieved this in really interesting ways. Despite a few issues with the final section I thought this was a compelling tale. Highly recommended!