Even the animals Eliza is put in charge over hold their own secrets. Everyone in the story seems to either have deep debts to pay for protection for loved ones, or are people who are unaware of their own roles to play.

And there’s Ishe, doomed to never see his wife again. There’s Jamey, whose aunt is the best-known gangster in Harlem. There’s Clay, the business Manager of Bacchanal carnival who does Ahiku’s dirty work to protect his son. Eliza brushes against trapped spirits, women gangsters, werewolves, West African warrior women bodyguards, and the carnies who are indebted to Ahiku. People disappear, including children, captured as souls by Ahiku for bolstering her powers. People are drawn in by the strange attractions that have an African flair-stilt-walkers, drumming, kola nut vines infused with mind-altering drugs-but not all of them leave.

What she doesn’t know is that the true owner is Ahiku, a demon masquerading as a Black woman named Geneva Broussard, and she is using the carnival to search for another demon who is purported to be stronger than her.īacchanal Carnival is enticing, but at the same time, sinister. For instance, she was recruited by Clay, who named himself the business owner of the carnival. But as she travels with the carnival and gets to know its employees, she begins to learn that the carnival is not what it seems. Eliza hopes to earn enough money to find her missing younger sister, Twiggy, the only family she has left. That doesn’t stop her from nabbing a caretaker job at a traveling carnival, Bacchanal, with only the clothes on her back and Mico, her pet marmoset.

Think of a Southern Gothic version of The Midnight Circus with a touch of Lovecraft Country.Įliza Meeks can communicate with animals, though her gift is fickle if she isn’t careful, she can accidentally kill the animal she’s trying to talk to. I’m a sucker for carnival stories, and Veronica Henry’s Bacchanal is the first one I’ve read that’s centered on a Black protagonist. Series: The Tales of Gorlen Vizenfirthe.Series: From the Lost Travelers’ Tour Guide.People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!.

Bacchanal by veronica g henry