Bacchanal

Bacchanal by Veronica G. Henry was suggested for readers of Lovecraft Country, which was perfect since I’d loved reading Lovecraft Country.  Bacchanal has a similar blend of historical racial tensions, with Black characters existing under the constant threat of Klan violence, and supernatural elements.

Many of Bacchanal‘s demons, warriors, and supernatural creatures began in Africa, and made their way to the United States when their local lands were conquered and destroyed. In the American south, ancient enemies continue to battle for dominance and old debts are called in.  Life in the Depression-era South has additional threats for all the Black characters in this story, and this everyday, human danger blends with the supernatural threats.  I loved the book’s overall concept of the old-world demons migrating to the US to get their revenge, or to collect on demon bargains, and these were almost all unfamiliar creatures to me. I also liked how the supernaturals could play out their revenge over several human generations, pointing out how small the human lives are to them. 

Eliza Meeks has a strange power over animals, although she’s not fully sure how to use it and she’s just as likely to accidentally kill a sick animals as to help it. Still, controlling animals is enough of a special ability to land her a place in the Bacchanal traveling circus. This is Liza’s way out of endless drudgery, but there’s something dark and unmentionable in the carnival’s red caravan.

Bacchanal is a slowly unfolding story, possibly too slow-paced. It takes ages to meet everyone in the carnival and hint at all their dark secrets. It definitely felt like the slow-moving hours behind the scenes as we wander around the carnival, getting the backstories in rambling flashbacks from a rotating cast, and waiting for something to happen.  With so many different people all trapped in the show together, I expected tight bonds or enmity between performers who spend every hour of every day together. But mostly, we get hints and then Liza does a lot of flouncing out. Liza has intriguing supernatural powers with intriguing hints of her family and history. But it’s just hints for ages. Her mysterious family amulet with no explanation or story can only hold interest for so long, and at times this feels like an experiment to see exactly how long readers will keep turning pages before there’s any action. It’s disappointing because I enjoyed the world in this novel, and the slow pace took away from that.

The end of the book  — seriously, the very end, maybe the last 20 pages or so — has the required dramatic showdown between the two sides we’ve gotten all these intriguing hints about. I want to more, but discovering the supernatural is the best part of this story. I enjoyed the conclusion to Liza’s story, but for me, the end of the novel still left a lot of questions unanswered. I’d gotten invested in the many minor characters during the long, slow middle section at the traveling carnival, and I wanted some more about how things turned out for every one of them.

Readers who liked the blend of the historical and supernatural in Bacchanal may also enjoy reading The City Beautiful. This one uses Jewish folklore, not African, but the themes of discrimination and of something unsettling arriving from the old country appear here too.