protean depravity

On the verge of her cousin Keziah's marriage, Bata, a girl who lives in a small Nigerian town with her family, has a kind of episode during which she steps into another dimension and, dressed as an awesome warrior-bride, kicks the ass of an evil ghost bride, who apparently formerly was engaged to her cousin's groom. See, Bata has been different all her life, suffering from nightmares which keep the whole household awake - and make them resent her a little bit. Before she is subjected to an exorcism by the town's medicine man Dibia, she is snatched by a magnificient spirit who takes her to Ibaja La, the land of ghost brides, and informs her that she is a sort of chosen-one, and she has a paranormal mission she needs to fulfill as a Bride-Sentinel. Of course, for a ten year old girl coming from a family in which things are less than ideal, a household divided into itself, a house in which she always has been the odd one, to arrive in a sort of wonderland of young women in ...

We are getting closer to the middle of the year and in my experience that is the time when the good books start trickling in. Within the last month I have read three books that will definitely make it into my best-of list for 2022 and one of them is a really interesting philosophical post-apocalypse/body horror mesh-up, a debut from a young author I think has enormous potential and talent: I am talking about The Doloriad by Missouri Williams.

Until recently, I hadn’t managed to finish Laird Hunt’s dark fairy tale In the House in the Dark of the Woods , although I always meant to and always kept on recommending it. Now that I have finally crossed that title from my TBR list and although I’m left with lots and lots of question marks in my mind, I feel really satisfied finally having accomplished it.

Recently I tried to focus on finishing books I had started reading at some point in the past and didn't finish for one reason or another and it's looking good so far; here are some results of project DNF, as well as newer reads that I had been anticipating. Two of the books I am discussing here are slashers and the other three can definitely pass as (dark) fantasy but also as contemporary literature depending on where your focus is. Enjoy!