The mythology of the bog wife began with other stories about nonhuman women who marry into human families, like selkies. There is Welsh folklore of a woman made out of flowers who is brought to life. Thinking about those stories, what I find fun is that there is a certain amount of ambiguity as to how human this woman appears and how human she really is, and how much the husband in question is willfully deluding himself about having some kind of quasi-human marriage partner. I went back and forth about how much to physically describe the bog wife and how much to describe the logistics of this dirt and plant woman who had raised five children and lived in a house and seemed to exist like a human for a while. I ultimately decided, which is pretty habitual for me, that I don’t care very much about the logistics. I wanted her to be in a state of flux. She is more human for a period of time and then less.
― Kay Chronister, Interview, Electric Literature
What booksellers are saying about The Bog Wife
- This book is incredibly atmospheric and full of gothic vibes! The Bog Wife is part family story, part environmental story and one I will be thinking about it for a long time. I love the questions it asks about ownership and land, about inheritance and duty.
― Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY
- This book has changed my brain chemistry. Chronister has created this devastating, beautiful, and just plain weird story and group of characters to dissect generational poverty and trauma in a very tangible, jarring way. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, as I wasn’t ever sure what was real or just imagined. Just an absolute masterpiece.
― Tori Finklea, Union Ave Books in Knoxville, Tennessee | BUY
- This book is so, so weird—in a really good way. The Haddesley family has an ancient pact with the Appalachian bog they live in. With each generation, the patriarch succumbs to death, and the bog provides a new bride for the eldest son. The family line mustn’t branch off. The bog belonged to them and they to it. This is Southern gothic perfection and would make for a fantastic October read.
― Sydney Bozeman, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY
- This is an eccentric, vivid, and devastating Appalachian folk/gothic horror. The Haddesley’s have always believed it was their family’s duty to take care of the bog on their land. Every time a patriarch dies, the siblings must feed the body to the bog, who, in return, will give them a wife for the eldest son to carry on tradition. Except this time, the bog doesn’t give Haddesley’s eldest son Charlie a wife. What happens now? The house is falling apart as the siblings fall apart, trying to figure out the next step. This novel is so beautifully weird. I became emotionally attached to the Haddesley siblings as they try to navigate a new way of life and as they figure out that their whole family history might be a lie.
― TMegan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia | BUY
About Kay Chronister
Kay Chronister is the author of Thin Places and Desert Creatures. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Dark, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy awards. She lives outside of Philadelphia.
