A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural

Where the Dead Brides Gather

by Nuzo Onoh, 2024

Once more, Ms. Onoh takes us to the haunted jungles of Nigeria for a ghostly adventure. This time, our young heroine, Bata, must traverse not only the realms of the dead, but the treacherous world of adults. Sometimes scary, sometimes heart-warming, sometimes humorous, Bata’s adventures resound with her authentic, youthful voice.

Indeed, this book seems aimed at a reader of about Bata’s age—ten, then eleven—rather than an adult reader. We see the life in a modern, but rustic village in the hinterlands of Africa through a child’s eyes. A child reading such a story would easily relate to her fears and misgivings.

All her young life, Bata has been an unusual child. Plagued by nightmares and fits of screaming that worry the superstitious villagers, her condition suddenly worsens. Attacked by a demonic ghost-bride—the ghost of a young woman who died just before being wed and therefore finding herself incomplete—Bata is saved by becoming a ghost-sentinel. A powerful spirit who is tasked with protecting living brides from those that are dead.

So unusual is Bata that she is taken to the land of the Dead Brides, a mystical and wonderful place filled with young women who cannot pass on until their husbands-to-be take on a new wife—but some of these brides seek vengeance on the new brides who will take her place. Presiding over the Dead Brides is a terrifying apparition, part goddess and part demon. Yet she befriends Bata and grants her impressive supernatural powers.

Actually, the reasoning that Onoh gives for the Dead Brides is a bit convoluted. I’m not sure if this is authentic Igbo lore—which she has used so well in her previous books—or if it comes from her own creative imagination. But the impression is that a Dead Bride must go through a more elaborate set of rules and regulations than any other ghost.

I’m going to give this book two different ratings. For adults, I think a score of four is appropriate, as the adult mind will attempt to apply logic to the situation and fall short. However, for younger readers, willing to suspend disbelief and go along on a wild, supernatural adventure, it definitely earns a big five stars.