What do readers think of The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister? Write your own review.

I enjoyed most of The Bog Wife, but struggled to finish it. I flew through the first 3/4 of the book which I perceived to be about family truths. Things you believe to be true due to the stories you are told growing up. The Haddesley children are raised with stories of a compact with the bog and generations of the Haddesleys. The compact requires to bog to produce a wife for the eldest Haddesley son. The truth behind this compact begins to unravel and I was excited to see what direction the children would go. The novel then took an odd turn into the supernatural with the presumed dead mother. I struggled to get through the book after this. It did not appeal to me at all. I would not recommend this book.

The Bog Wife started out with little "introduction" to the story or it's characters. The reader is given the legend of the story and immediately put into the activity of its actors. It is a dark and strange family tale about an isolated group of siblings that have lived their entire lives away from the outside world. One daughter, who left 10 years before, has been summoned to return for the death of her father and complete an ancient ritual.
It took me some time to make sense of the story, which kept drawing me back in at moments when I was not sure I wanted to continue. Given the book's initial description, I did not enjoy the story as much as I thought I would have. The story was confusing especially where Wenna and her relationship with her family was concerned. The relationship with her husband was confusing especially when Nora got involved and it became unrealistically strange. The story seemed to be supernatural and then seemed to be an elaborate falsehood and then back to the supernatural. The family members were all rather disconnected and unlikeable. The point of the story was never made clear by the end and it felt like the author just ended the story.

I usually enjoy fantasy, but this novel was too bizarre for me. The Haddesley family was so dysfunctional. The idea of a "bog wife" created from vegetation was weird. The mother who mysteriously disappeared is discovered alive in the bog and two of the children decide to return to the earth with her. I finished it, but can't recommend it. I gave it a 3 because I liked the writing style.

Weena has been summoned to come home because her father is dying. Not an unusual circumstance for most people, yet consequential for the Haddesley family and their ancestral cranberry bog.
The impending death means an ancient ritual must be performed that will insure survival for her siblings and the family compound. Weena is the only one of four children who has "gone over the property line" to experience life away from the bog and she is not coming back willingly.
The Bog Wife could easily have been a family drama about children denied access to 'real world' experiences with the consequent denial, rebellion and retribution. Chronister mixes in a supernatural element of an ancient compact that if unheeded (or disbelieved) could result in desolation of both family and land. Weena and her siblings navigate through their family history both real and imagined, striving to find their individual ways with varied results. Recommended for fans of dysfunctional family sagas exacerbated by supernatural forces.

The book was set in the Appalachian area where folktales and superstitions are prevalent. I did find the storyline a bit confusing in the beginning until I was able to figure out all of the characters and their position in the family. I did have to reread some of the prose to keep track of the plot because it was a bit wordy at times. Overall, I did enjoy the book but I found it to be a bit creepy, weird, haunting, and unpredictable. This may have not been the genre for me but if you love the supernatural and the gothic this is the book for you.

There is frequent mention of the "bog wife" but for the first 7/8 of the book it reads as a tremendously disfunctional family with personality disorders. Near the end of the book the wife, who has been dead for eleven years, suddenly comes to semi life as a bog entity. The book is a great example of how delusional parents can permanently destroy any chance their children have at a happy, fulfilled life.