Where the Dead Brides Gather

October 1, 2024

Bata is a typical young girl in her village outside Lagos, living with her father, his two wives, and her siblings. Typical, that is, until the evening before her cousin gets married, when Bata wakes from a nightmare, has turned completely white, and grows to an impossible height--all to fight off the evil ghost bride who is trying to destroy her cousin. Bata is now a Bride-Sentinel, possessed with the power to protect brides from harm, and is sent to the magical land of the ghost brides to learn their ways and hone her own powers. When Bata returns, she is confused, caught between her old life as an overlooked little sister and her new role as a powerful, otherworldly being, tasked with protecting her family, even when doing so is dangerous to herself and those she loves. VERDICT Onoh (A Dance for the Dead) crafts a creepy, gripping tale based on the lore of the ghost bride, a figure that appears in cultures across the globe. It will hold readers rapt with its beauty, imagination, and hopeful message about the power inside young women.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 19, 2024
In this wildly imaginative tale from Nigerian British horror writer Onoh (A Dance for the Dead), a child in 1977 Nigeria ventures beyond the veil of death. Bata, 11, has been plagued by terrible nightmares all her life. On the eve of her cousin Keziah’s wedding, she’s visited in the night by the violent ghost of the groom’s previous fiancée. Her father decides to solve Bata’s nocturnal terrors the same way he did last time they cropped up: by taking her to the village’s medicine man for an exorcism. When the ritual goes awry, Bata wakes up in Ibaja-La, a dimension of brides who never lived to experience the matrimony they were promised. What she learns from these trapped souls changes her understanding of the world of the living and imbues her with supernatural abilities to fight off the undead. She must learn to wrangle these powers, which seem as much a curse as a blessing, to protect those she loves from more ghost brides. Onoh does an electrifying job of conjuring the inner life of a child thrust into impossible circumstances, and the novel’s many twists are by turns terrifying, hilarious, and heartbreaking. The mythology at the center of the story is fascinating and rewarding to watch unfold. Supernatural horror fans owe it to themselves to check this out.