#kay chronister

[whilereadingandwalking]

For generations, the Haddesleys have fulfilled their contract with the bog. When a patriarch dies, his body is delivered into its murky waters; in return, the bog sends a bog wife to the oldest son, allowing their family to continue without any outsiders. But their home, their inheritance, has gradually fallen into decay, and the oldest son can’t have children. As the children—including Wedda, who ran away years ago; Eda, the oldest daughter and matriarch; Charlie, the disabled eldest son; Percy, the son who has always craved Charlie’s inheritance; and young, needy Nora—gather around their father, they wonder. What will happen if this time, the exchange doesn’t work? What it will it mean about their past—and what on earth would they do next?

This complex Appalachian gothic, The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister, about family inheritance, isolation, and patriarchy is slow-paced but never boring. The suspense is gradual, the emotional consequences building alongside the narrative ones. In classic gothic fashion, the fantasy is almost beside the point—how much is truly coming from the bog, how much from a magicked past, and how much of it is just base human nature, is just blind, stubborn loyalty to the stories a father imposes on his children? The line between real and false is slimy and impossible to pin down, for the characters and for the reader. People unspool, make irrational decisions, grasp at a story that’s rapidly slipping through their fingers. The novel is rich with grime and cold, wet and muck, Chronister bringing the texture and sensuality of a bog and of a crumbling once-great house to the forefront. A great, eerie fall read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Content warnings for ableism, implied sexual assault, suicidal ideation and attempt, death, grief, emotional abuse.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Book Haul!: I Am Not Immune To Buy 3 Get 1 Free Sales.

These have all been on my list for a while--I knew the bookstore would have the Jemisin and Jackson books for sure (I'd seen them both there before), and I was hoping they'd have Chronister in paperback (because they had her in hardback). I was glad Turnbull was out in paperback, too! What a delightful evening of book shopping!

[b-oredzoi]

Books I Read in 2024: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

Always the bog has belonged to us

and we to it".

[usnea10]

[thehappyscavenger]

"A household that left a tree embedded in a roof for most of a year was not a sane or healthy household."

Kay Chronister, The Bog Wife

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister

Author: Kay ChronisterPublisher: ErewhonReleased: November 8, 2022Received: Own (Aardvark) Book Summary: Magdala was born into a cruel world. It’s dry and hot, with very little to offer. While she and her father are fleeing their home, they are exposed to a new horror within the Sonoran Desert. A horror that will linger forever. This puts Magdala on a new journey in life. At first, it’s a…

[spidersrightsactivist]

i love questing characters so much. characters who are chasing after one particular thing with all the strength they have and have been for so long that it’s not even really about winning anymore but about the fact that the quest has become their whole identity. characters who can’t imagine their future because it’s dominated by this one enormous unattainable goal and they know on some level it’ll never happen but they don’t even know if they want it anymore, just that chasing it is the only thing they know how to do

[foxcassius]

i've now read 3 books in a row that utilized pov that changes every chapter (one of them, actually, changed pov whenever it wanted with one of these *** bad boys in the middle of the page) and only one of them was in any way enhanced by this. i would argue the other two were worse for it. just pick a main character.

[petite-gloom-mail]

so sorry to bother you, just wanted to tell you about the book "The Bog Wife" by Kay Chronister. Don't know if it's up your alley but,, bog.

yes! i actually looked at it in waterstones a couple of days ago. i thought from the name it was something like the time travellers wife but its horror

[glassamphibians]

how did you read so many books??! that’s so cooll

do you have a favorite from this year? :)

most of my reading is done by listening to audiobooks while driving/doing chores/etc! I moved to receiving at work this year too which means I get to listen to books while I unpack books for like seven hours straight it rules. For physical books i literally just always have one on me and take it out whenever i can.

I read so many good books this year I Cannot narrow it down to just one so I'm doing ten under the read more <3

GLASS AMPHIBIANS 2024 FAVES BY GENRE KIND OF IF YOU SQUINT:

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark: This book is just so vibrant. I was immediately in love with steampunk Cairo and the protagonist, Fatma, is easily one of my favorite female characters of all time. You need to read everything Clark writes i am so serious.

The West Passage by Jared Pechaček: this Expertly conveys incomprehensible enormity and humbling smallness in a way that i have never read before!!! Possibly one of the most unique fantasy novels I've read AND each chapter has beautiful illustrations done by the author! huge for fans of Piranesi or Monument Valley.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez: also one of the most unique high fantasies i've ever read this was fucking insane. An experiment in perspective and world building that honestly made me a danger to other people driving do not handle large machinery while trying to follow this. This is a love story to its blade-dented bone.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler: Duh. Post apocalyptic novels full of spiteful, unrelenting optimism and compassion are the most important things in the world. genre ever. idk what else to say like its octavia butler of course its gonna be on here

A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons: one of those horror novels that i desperately need to see made into a movie. For some reason I started this thinking there was no supernatural aspect and jesus christ was i wrong there's a Creature in here!!!! a very gross and scary and weird one!!! So action packed with a disgruntled, dislikable female protagonist I would literally follow to the ends of the earth she's so kick ass.

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister: a more literary horror novel that i can really only describe as damp. I seriously considered dunking my copy in a creek so its appearance would better match whats going on inside. This fucked up family dynamic and decaying, sodden mansion was so up my alley, and Chronister's prose was so easy to fall into.

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad: An actress returns to Palestine and ends up involved in a contentious production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Hammad's prose is unreal. She published a speech on Palestine and storytelling this year that goes perfectly with this book. The protagonist's relationship with Palestine is beautifully explored I could not put this book down.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: This is an extremely introspective, character driven novel about transfemininity and motherhood that I read in march and have thought about at least once a week since. Peters captures the messiness and complexities of queer identities so perfectly. She has new book coming out in 2025 that i am frothing at the mouth waiting for.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado: A memoir and a poem and a horror novel and a film criticism and a choose-your-own-adventure story and so much more. Machado plays with genres and tropes in order to articulate her time in an abusive lesbian relationship. Incredibly creative and addictive read, Machado is so talented. My mom had to stop me from trying to read this while waiting for a wedding to start.

The Women's House of Detention by Hugh Ryan: Researched with so much care and time, this follows the history of this prison and the lives of the people who were incarcerated there. Some are famous, like Angela Davis, but the vast majority of its inhabitants were forgotten. Ryan specifically follows queer individuals and looks at how the Women's House of Detention impacted the queer history and culture of Greenwhich Village. Must read for anybody interested in prison abolition.

there were a billion trillion more phenomenal reads this year i love u books i love u reading xoxoxoxo

[googledocsdyke]

FAVOURITE READS OF 2024 SO FAR. henry henry by allen bratton. y/n by esther yi. the bog wife by kay chronister. erasure by percival everett. come and get it by kiley reid. greta and valdin by rebecca k reilly. headshot by rita bullwinkel. crime and punishment by fyodor dostoevsky. can everyone please read those so we can chat

[devotion-that-corrupts]

4 8 and 17 for the end of the year book ask meme! 📚

end-of-year book asks

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

catherynne m valente my beloved!! i'd had "deathless" and "comfort me with apples" on my tbr list for a while, and this year i've finally picked them up, as well as one of her short story collections. the combination of atmospheric magical realism, folktale motives and reimaginings, beautiful writing, and meta narrative has me by my throat.

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

i don't really do reading goals tbh. my goodreads one is set at 24 so it wasn't that hard to beat. i'm still not done with my old tbr, but i got 14 books off it this year. also i've been reading more books written by women, i'm very happy with my progress in that regard.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

yes! two books in particular.

the first is "the bog wife" by kay chronister. i expected it to be moderately fun but nothing extraordinary, like all the other recent gothic horror releases i've read. instead it turned out to be genuinely great. it has everything i want from the genre. a family isolated from society, siblings who "have uncannily grown into each other", their different kinds of strangeness, their interactions and dynamics distinct and full of rituals, the slow collapse of the world as they know it, and very importantly writing that is both lyrical and oppressive. it's just great. i highly recommend it.

the second is "and i darken" by kiersten white (it's part of the trilogy titled "the conqueror's saga", but after i liked the first book i obviously wasn't surprised when i liked the others). the thing about it is that it has no right to work. i could tell you the premise and the direction of the plot, and it wouldn't sound good at all, or at least it wouldn't sound like something i would normally like. and the fact that the author mostly wrote ya paranormal romance before that didn't give me much hope either. and yet i enjoyed it a lot. mostly because of unapologetic batshit insanity of our female mc and her messy relationship with the second pov character, her brother. you can really tell that she's genderbent vlad the impaler, i'll leave it at that.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: DESERT CREATURES by Kay Chronister.

Up next! I'm heading back into my Driscoll revision project next month, WHICH MEANS: I can start reading through my Driscoll-vibes TBR shelf again!! I have been promised weird desert body horror (with a side of cannibalism? yikes?), and I'm excited to see how this goes.

[likesummerrainn]

Tag 9 people you want to know better! I was tagged by @sybilius

Last song: I've literally just started listening to Shaboozey today and I've had Bar Song on repeat since listening to his most recent album!

Last movie: The last New To Me movie I watched was The Nun II (2023) and that was good, but last night I re-watched People Will Talk (1951) which is one i adore so so much it makes me feel so nice and warm!

Currently watching: abbott elementary, wrestling, old simpsons episodes

Currently reading: i'm always reading a couple of books at a time and right now it is: Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier; The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister; The Last To Vanish by Megan Miranda (these are all very good and very interesting and i highly recommend them to everyone!)

Current obsession: whatever the hell's going on with jay white; ronald colman's filmography; like three very specific josseph cotten movies; and this new game I started playing called Spiritfarer!

I tag: @kirstlander @saltydornishman @mottles @shes-a-voodoo-child @cursemewithyourkiss @nicholasvanryn @werewolves @aansoo @coffeewithmeaning

no pressure to do it if you guys don't want to! if I didn't tag you feel free to do it anyway and say I tagged you!

[kay-chronister]

It’s now September and THE BOG WIFE comes out one month from today!! That is so soon?! To get us all in an appropriately soggy mood, today I’m sharing the music and books that inspired the novel.

You can find the full soundtrack, plus a few bonus songs, on Spotify:

And of course, if you have not yet secured yourself a copy of THE BOG WIFE, there is no time like September! I recommend ordering from Bookshop:

[thehappyscavenger]

He had spent his whole life learning a version of his father that was gone, and he didn’t know how to behave around the man that his father was now."

The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister