Island Witch

Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa, 367 pages

Amara has long assisted her father with his work as the local village's priest, helping exorcise demons and protect homes using the traditional methods. When local men start getting attacked in the nearby jungle, however, villagers who have adopted the colonizers' Christian religion start blaming him (and by extension her) for welcoming and controlling the demons instead of fighting against them. Meanwhile, Amara struggles with a growing divide in her relationship with her father, which has disturbingly coincided with a series of violent nightmares and an increase in sleepwalking. All the while, the attacks continue...

This was an intriguing look into the colonization of Sri Lanka and the ways in which it impacted local culture (it reminded me of Things Fall Apart in that sense). But it also taps into local mythology, the anger of mistreated women, and fear of the unknown. There are times at which the author does a bit more telling than showing, which is unfortunate, as so much of horror is based on atmosphere and the unsettling feelings it creates. But overall, this was a fresh and creative way to examine colonialism.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, 400 pages.

Maali Almeida wakes up dead, which even by his standards is a lousy way to start the day. What's worse is that he has no idea how he got that way, or why his body is being dismembered and thrown into Beira Lake. In life he was a war photographer, an arranger of meetings, a gambler, and a closeted gay man in 1990 Colombo, so the list of people who could have potentially wanted him dead and his body disposed of isn't exactly short. His ghost has only seven days to answer these mysteries, as well as to lead the people he loves most to the photos he had tucked away to rock a nation being torn apart by civil war, terrorist activity, and government corruption.

This is a pretty depressing book. Which isn't exactly surprising given the setting, but it bears saying anyway. The protagonist is dead from the beginning, as are a whole lot of other ghosts, and it is absolutely full of gruesome and unfair deaths. It is also a higher context book than a lot of the other world literature I've been reading this year, and I do feel like there's an assumed amount of knowledge about Sri Lanka that I didn't have going in. All that being said, this is a very well constructed book. Being dead allows for a pretty wide perspective, and the fact that it was told mostly in pretty short vignettes was a great decision. I also found the mystery pretty compelling, although it wasn't quite as prominent as I might have thought it would be. Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book, and Maali in particular, less misanthropic than I was afraid it would be, especially by the end. This is not a light read, but I would say it is a good one.