N'Gadie Roberts' Grave Delights delivers a series of poetic microfictions that carry a sting in the tail; that go from prosaic narrative to horror story in the leap of a verse. At times provocative in her treatment of the taboo, her clever twists provide humorous relief as the reader is delivered out of trauma to a comic resolution. But don't get comfortable, confronting moments deposit the underbelly of human behaviour on the page, demanding the reader takes pause, forcing a moment to draw breath.
In Roberts' own words, her work embodies "the experiences of others through storytelling." Her penchant for the thriller/ horror genre has Grave Delights inhabited by spirits and mythical creatures that represent the darkest aspects of human beings and the writing is redolent with the rhythms of the Krio (Creole) language and is evocative of Roberts' Sierra Leonean origins.
Be prepared for tales that shock while exposing matters that might be thought about, but not spoken of, in the daylight hours.
Anne-Louise Willoughby, author of Nora Heysen: A Portrait.
