The Bog Wife
Ratings14
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings14
Average rating3.8
Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured
Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.
Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.
At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.
Reviews with the most likes.
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
The Bog has given the Haddesley family everything it has needed but this generation of 5 siblings seems to have done something to upset the bog as it didn't send the bog wife to birth the next generation. When middle sister Wenna comes home for the funeral of their father, she tries to free her siblings from the desolate life the bog is holding them to.
It might have been the weirdest book I have ever read. It's like a gothic family drama. Never read anything like it. It's slow. Like really slow and had it been paced a tad faster, this book would have won book of the year for me.
The characters all backwater in their views because they only know the bog. Wenna managed to leave and got married, something that wasn't allowed with their almost cultish belief. It was a bizarre book but I couldn't stop listening. If you need a family drama book with a wild storyline... This is it.
4 stars
This book was a delightful mixture of suspense, mystery, and fantasy. It introduces this weird cult-like family with its strange magical rules and rituals and then made me question the assumptions I'd made about them and the nature of the world they're in. The bog itself leaks into every aspect of this book: I could describe every interaction and description as heavy, sludgy, and grim. I hope there are more additions to this genre like this one in the future.
This was an interesting book. The author's subtle writing on climate change was great IMO. I liked that the family felt that because they were “caretakers” of the bog it would always take care of them, however the bog like any natural thing can only be abused so much before it starts failing. The story is from different POVs of this family. The characters were sometimes sympathetic and sometimes annoying and bordering on unlikable but they were really well written.
I'm really glad I read it. Would recommend.
So fun and creepy...a blend of magical realism, horror, gothic, and mystery. The characters are all painfully real: sometimes loveable and sad, sometimes deeply unlikable, but very well-developed, which made this novel stand out amongst other contemporary horror/fantasy/magical realism books I've read in recent years.
Five siblings live in a crumbling manor house on the edge of a bog, to which they have an ancestral (and biological/spiritual) connection. They are all adults, with adult problems and personalities, but this story has echoes of middle-grade fiction adventures where orphans have to survive strange circumstances after the death or disappearance of their parents (i.e. Narnia, Series of Unfortunate Events, The Boxcar Children, etc etc). The story is told from the (third person) perspectives of the five main characters, as they process being thrust into the unknown after the death of their father, the patriarch, who previously kept a tight control on information and ritual. Their mother emerged from the bog before they were born, and returned there at some point when they were children, never to be seen since (like a kind of bog-selkie). The rituals that are supposed to keep the relationship between the bog and the family functioning have failed...and the siblings start to discover that the rituals, and their whole family history, might not be exactly as their father led them to believe.
I finished this novel in 2 days. It's not long, and I never felt like it dragged. This is one of those books that seems like it is the exact right length for the story being told. Some questions are answered, but not all.
Although I read this in July, it is definitely an autumnal read (which is perfect since its release date is October 1st). Thanks to Netgalley and Counterpoint for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.
