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A Good Haunting: Stories

by Carol Mitchell

Myth, mortality, and the ties that bind

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Myth, mortality, and the ties that bind

Carol Mitchell’s collection brings myth, magic, and realism into stories rooted in contemporary life and traditions of Africa and the Caribbean. Death shapes each tale, whether through personal mortality or the loss of someone close, while the characters confront grief, love, betrayal, motherhood, and belonging. The stories range across distinct circumstances: a widower navigating an unconventional ritual, an immortal African queen facing enslavement and impossible choices, and a dwindling community whose remaining members struggle to sustain hope. Together, these varied situations frame questions of what it means to be human and how people are changed by painful truths and profound loss.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in short fiction combining myth, magic, and realism.
  • Readers seeking stories that explore grief, love, betrayal, motherhood, and belonging.
  • Readers drawn to fiction informed by African and Caribbean traditions.

Themes

Mortality and griefLove and connectionMotherhood and betrayalHome and belongingHumanity and change

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

GROUNDED IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND INFUSED WITH TRADITIONS of Africa and the Caribbean, A Good Haunting: Stories spins myth, magic, and realism into heartrending tales of characters seeking love and connection. Death is the primary antagonist in each of these stories, sometimes appearing as death of self, other times as death of a loved one, and often as both.

In the title story, "A Good Haunting," a widower in the midst of an unorthodox death ritual uses humor to deal with grief and guilt while coming to terms with unsavory details about his spouse's sudden death. In "The Way of the Volt," an eighteenth-century African queen is made immortal, sold into slavery, and left to face a series of impossible choices that force her to struggle with what it means to be human. In "The Sunset Toll," members of the last community on earth disappear one by one until there are just three people left, trying to maintain hope even as they question the forces that keep them trapped on earth.

The characters wrestle with foes, agonize at crossroads, and face painful truths, all while grappling with grief, love, betrayal, motherhood, and ideas of home. Some triumph, some do not--but they all emerge irrevocably changed by their experiences.

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