Creatures of Passage

Written by Morowa Yejidé

Narrated by Morowa Yejidé

Longlisted for the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction

With echoes of Toni Morrison's Beloved, Yejidé's novel explores a forgotten quadrant of Washington, DC, and the ghosts that haunt it.

"Yejidé's surreal new novel has no shortage of otherworldly surprises, but it's her this-worldly protagonist who steals the show...Informed by a richly woven mythology and propelled by themes of regret and revenge, Creatures of Passage has earned some apt comparisons to Toni Morrison's Beloved."
--Philadelphia Inquirer, One of the Best Books of Winter 2021

"Hauntingly magical, this sophomore novel by Morowa Yejidé centers a young woman dealing with the loss of her brother, her young great-nephew who mysteriously shows up at her door and Washington, DC, the city that provides an otherworldly backdrop to this imaginative thriller."
--Ms. Magazine, A Most Anticipated Book of 2021

"A deeper, broader, and more audacious immersion in magical realism...Historic detail and mythic folklore forge a scary, thrilling vision of life along America's margins."
--Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

"Skillfully blending fantasy and stark reality while blurring the line between the metaphoric and the tangible, Yejidé successfully tells the story in fits and starts as each major character adds a piece to the puzzle...Highly recommended."
--Library Journal, STARRED Review

"Yejidé creates a tapestry of interconnected stories of guilt, loss, love, grief, justice, and restoration...Yejidé's prose is often stunning...The story's rich texture evokes the ghost stories of Toni Morrison."
--Publishers Weekly

"Fatal racism, police violence, pedophilia, family dysfunction--all the horrific ills of contemporary society wreak destruction, but somehow humanity survives."
--Booklist

"In this beautifully written and gloriously conceived novel, Morowa Yejidé reveals her mastery yet again. This book is both contemporary and ancient, frightening and stirring, playful and wise, an unforgettable blurring of reality and genres from its haunted Plymouth automobile to the mysteries in the fog in this alternate America and hidden Washington, DC. With its lyricism and bold imagination, Creatures of Passage is unlike anything you've ever read."
--Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer: Stories

Nephthys Kinwell is a taxi driver of sorts in Washington, DC, ferrying passengers in a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River.

Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash--reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw--has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the "River Man."

When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys's door bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face what frightens her most.

Morowa Yejidé's deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781713532231

Morowa Yejidé

Morowa Yejidé, a native of Washington, DC, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Time of the Locust, which was a 2012 finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize, long-listed for the 2015 PEN/Bingham Prize, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award nominee. She lives in the DC area with her husband and three sons. Creatures of Passage is her second novel.

Reviews for Creatures of Passage

[Rosemary Banks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an incredible work of pure art! I’m going to buy this book. Should absolutely win the Pulitzer! A MUST read! A super feat! A masterpiece!

[livi karetai · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Must read! I had to skip traumatic section. So we'll written. Amazing story telling.

[marie diaz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow, I wish that it never ended! It is a must on your reading/listening list!

[cassandra · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This audiobook is read by the author who masterfully creates a vivid picture in the listeners mind while she reads. The story is powerful and immersive. Beautifully written and read.

[leisure-22278 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Creatures of Passage is an intelligent and beautifully written wander through generational pain. Set where Egyptian mythology lives in Washington, D.C. reality, the main character, Nephthys, ferries souls from world to world in her blue 1967 Plymouth Belvedere that always runs, always has a full tank, and always contains the spirit of a white girl in the trunk. The story of Nephthys’ extended family’s journey through loss and reconciliation unfolds in cycles and repetitions; repetition of language (“signs omens bones”), atrocities, travels, and history. Tragedies in African-American lives reoccur, abuse continues on child after child after child, damage proceeds unresolved. But history is not condemned to repeat itself forever. Broken people heal. Souls move on. Evil is vanquished, at least for the moment. Community is allowed to grow. Nature and humanity are strongly connected throughout, in lush descriptions of the forest and sky. Everything is connected and everyone belongs in this world, condemning its inhabitants to responsibility for the present while freeing them from the past.

[whiskeyinthejar-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 starsI received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Nephthys Kinwell was not a savior of souls.Set in 1977 around Washington, D.C., Creatures of Passage was a Magical Realism and Fantasy story that centered around members of the Kinwell family. Nephthys' twin brother Osiris was murdered and the pain of losing him and not knowing the who and why of him eventually being found in the Anacostia river have caused her to become an alcoholic. Nephthys is emotionally lost without her twin and so spends her time driving around in a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere, that has the ghost of a murdered white girl in the trunk, and transports people that she gets a feeling about that need her. And when Nephthys looked at her niece, she loved her and hated her too.Nephthys' niece, Amber, is whispered about and thought to be a witch because of the dreams she has of people's upcoming death. Amber's dream of her own father's death when she was twelve and not being able to save him is why Nephthys can't really stand to be around her, as her pain makes her blame Amber. When Dash, Amber's ten year old son and Nephthys' great nephew, comes to her after school one day, it throws Nephthys for a little bit of a loop but gets her to think about the remaining family she has left as Dash says he thinks his mother has dreamed of his own death. But more than anything, he remembered his grandmother saying: “We just going round and round, we creatures of passage. And we gonna keep going round till we understand the Loop.”As this is also a fantasy story, we get murdered Osiris' story too and the journey he is going on after death. This part could have a content warning as racism and it's violence leads to Osiris' murder. The story was broken up into five parts with the first introducing some of the characters and getting the reader into the world and the tone of the story. This was told in a very flowing way, I can only think of one “corner” in the story, each character and their story, flows into the next with the Kinwells being the backbone. I'm usually one for a very linear story but the flow really worked for me here. As Nephthys picked up a passenger to bring them where they wanted to go, we flowed into that character's story, sometimes only a couple paragraphs and sometimes longer as they and their story played a bigger part in the overall picture. For he sensed he was being hunted and handed a plate at the same time; given an offer without a choice.The second part also had a difficult part to read as Dash, without fully understanding what he is seeing, comes upon the school janitor, Mercy, sexually abusing a girl. That scene is from Dash's point of view and so, not clear but the story then flows into Mercy's pov and goes back to him as a child experiencing his own abuse and then how he grows up to become the abuser himself. This flows into and with another character that Nephthys has picked up, Rosetta, and there was a heavy content warning scene depicting Rosetta's abuse. And that was when he knew—as all ghosts do—that death is just another kind of living.After the heavier, less placed in fantasy second part, the third part brings in more of the myth and mysticism that cloaks the overall story. The fantasy and magical realism world-building wasn't complex, it's Kingdom of Virginia instead of a State, so don't go into this wanting that kind of fantasy. It's more of the character of Wolf and how Osiris is traveling through the Twelve Hours of the Night and trying to get out of The Conundrum of the Three (think Purgatory). It's about flowing the stories of life, the sadness, anger, pain, fight, love, and people with myths and allegory to teach, explain, and try and make meaning out of. There was a girl who was there but now she was gone.Around the fourth part is where I thought the story started to lose some of it's steam as it took just a little bit too long to get to where it was flowing. The fourth part brings in a character that had previously been wondered about, Dash's father, and we get his story that flows into the fifth and final part. The final part has most of our lost souls flow together and while there is no definite happy ending as life flows on, there was a feeling for at least in this moment, it felt settled. There were so many others, countless passengers, each with burdens that kept them frozen even as they moved from one place to the next.The list of characters in this could seem like a lot but I can't think of one that was wasted, each was powerful in their own way and I would definitely read a story about Find Out. I could see some readers having difficulty with the flow of the story, how characters and their stories bleed into one another and while the overall backbone of the story is linear, the time flows back and forth as characters and their personal stories get told. I ended up really liking the way the story was told because of how each character left us with almost like Easter eggs of how they and their actions affected other characters earlier and later in the story. It all goes back to the flowing feel of the story and how time and people flow in and out of each other's lives, really great way to tell a story. But most of all, he'd always wondered, down through the ages in different realms, how these creatures of passage could be so careless.

[hairball_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My favorite part of this novel was learning about Anacostia—the scenery became quite vivid for me. The week after I read it, the NYT ran an interactive piece about the area, and included a picture of the big chair. The rest is ghosts of cruelty and anger tearing people apart, sometimes bringing a few together, and ruining my taste for lemonade, written with some grace.

[jim53_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yedije's second novel is hugely ambitious, and it succeeds in many respects. The book is hard to classify: it has elements of mystery, fantasy, horror, paranormal, alternate history. It's like a jazz compilation that has some traditional, straight-ahead bebop, but also samples from free jazz and other, more difficult variations. Characters' names suggest an Egyptian inspiration for the story. It's an interesting reimagining of an area that was just a bit beyond the familiar world as I was growing up. I won't attempt a plot summary; I'm still not at all sure that I recognized and grasped all the key story elements. Good for someone with a tolerance for ambiguity and a love of weirdness.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Creatures of Passage, Morowa Yejide, authorUsing the past and the present, the author has written a novel that will hold the reader spellbound until the end. It is difficult to read, dark and often without hope, which held me back from reading it quickly. However, read on, because it is worth it, and there is a more hopeful ending. This spiritual, mystical, supernatural, psychological exploration of race and racism takes place in a world in which magic exists and the people and the spirits roam sometimes aimlessly, seeking satisfaction and a place that they belong. Oftentimes, they are unable to find it, the living and the dead, alike. When twins, conjoined at the tip of the index finger are separated, their future is sealed. They will always feel each other in some way, always feel incomplete when alone, and they will possess some odd, supernatural abilities.Osiris and Nephthys Kinwell, twins named for a mythical god and goddess, are tasked with living up to their namesakes. Nephthys will ferry people to destinations and Osiris will travel through the underworld. When Osiris leaves this world before Nephthys, when he is unjustly murdered for a crime he never committed, but as a black man had no justice when accused by a white woman with a jealous husband, Nephthys finds it hard to go on and begins to frequent the bars to forget her grief. Her only solace is doling out candy to those in need of a sweet to calm them; she, a woman who never had children, comforts those who need it. Twins have a special bond that joins them, their physical, their mental and their emotional states are tied, and one without the other often feels incomplete.A series of events steers Nephthys to “Find Out’, who knows all. He realizes he has a car with her name on it. It is a special vehicle. It never needs gas. It knows where it has to go without the driver’s input. It has a resident white girl ghost in the trunk. Suddenly, with her brother dead, and with no body to bury, with his spirit wandering and searching for his place, Nephthys becomes the one who brings salvation to many lost souls needing secrecy, needing solace or simply searching for the spirits of their loved ones, dead or alive. Osiris had been happily married to Gola. They produced a child that was born as Gola lay dying from a hit and run accident. The child is called Amber. In the afterlife, As Osiris wanders, he takes vengeance on all those who have caused his death, Gola’s death and his unhappiness. His daughter, Amber, is a strange girl, preferring her own company, is placid and seeming to know things, is wise beyond her years. People avoid her because she has visions of impending death, and they always come true. She is powerless to stop them or provide enough information to help someone else stop them from happening. It is known as “the lottery”, and she provides the information published by the journalist. Needless to say, people avoid her, because her prophecies seem to be ordained.One day, a stranger named Red appears at her door, and they both find peace from their own troubles, she from her visions and he from his own visions of death when he was a soldier during the Vietnam War. When he suddenly leaves, with no warning and no forwarding address, her dreams return. Amber discovers she is pregnant. She has a child and names him Dash. Red knows nothing about him. There is no way to find him. He too wanders, but in this upper world of ours. When Amber dreams of her own child’s impending death, she is powerless to help him. A wolf’s need is awakened within her. When an incident, at the school that Dash attends, prompts the school nurse to contact Nephthys, she returns to “Find Out” and asks for his help in finding, Red, Dash’s father. He might be able to help save the child. There is someone evil hidden in the school, someone corrupted long ago by someone in the church he attended. Anthropomorphism, therianthropy, the supernatural, magical realism, past and present racism and racist behavior, military combat and PTSD, pedophilia, white supremacy and privilege, poverty and hopelessness, loom large on the pages of this book, and all embrace the reader in a cacophony of sound and conflicting emotion, even when the pages are seemingly silent and the message unknowable. A magical car, a woman who predicts death, a deceased twin who materializes for his grandson, ghosts and people with second sight and other unnatural gifts, carry the reader forward as they also carry the inhabitants of Anacostia, a community in Washington, DC, in the 1970’s, as they go about their daily life.What do the characters symbolize? Are white and dark skinned people represented equally? Is one more unjust than another? Is the true picture of today represented on these pages or is today a result of what was told on these pages? We carry our memories of trauma with us, we are scarred by them until they are resolved, no matter how long it takes, in life or in the afterlife. Is there hope for society, in the end, or are the same-old, same-old issues recurring over and over, doomed to remain unresolved. There is corruption, injustice and violence in all places, even in the Church. The author has lit up our world with its warts and foibles. She has shown us, subtly, uses mundane themes, ordinary objects, even lemonade, to imply to the reader that the world is easily misconstrued, people are capable of evil and others are easily wronged. Do we all have “the beast” within us?

[mykl8s · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Morowa Yejidé has given us a beautifully written story about people who may not experience much beauty, or fairness, or hope in their lives, but who persist and carry on. I have learned much about the lived black experience in America through this speculative novel.There are some very dark passages in this book, which made me, at first, wonder whether I wanted to finish it or not. But, the ending is satisfying and even the fantasy scenes are written in ways that made me believe in them.

[thogek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Creatures of Passage is an unusual novel in today's landscape, but one I'm glad I got to experience.The cultural background formed by mostly Gullah peoples making (or perhaps passing through) their lives in the poor DC neighborhood of Anacostia in what feels like an alternate-universe version of the United States but sometimes doesn't, woven through with various elements of what might be called urban fantasy or magical realism but so smoothly so that every weave clearly belongs right where it is, and told from a richly fluid word-of-mouth storyteller-historian point of view that here and there touches on the poetic, all delivers a rich story experience built on top of what it otherwise a relatively simple story.Creatures of Passage is just different and odd enough that I don't know that I ever would have found it myself if I hadn't happened across its foggy blue cover in a LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway. I came to much appreciate my seconds minutes hours with it, though I had no way of knowing this at the time... ;-)

[janerawoof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely stunning!! This novel's been compared to certain excellent [and now classic] writers, but I have reviewed it on its own merits--a dazzling tour-de-force, shot through with aspects of Egyptian mythology along with magic realism and supernaturalism. It was full of misery in the lives of certain African Americans, living in Anacostia, a slum section of Washington, D.C. but although horror-filled in the Juneteenth chapters, it ended on a hopeful note. Unforgettable!

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide is a 2021 Akashic Books publication. Nephthys Kinwell drives a haunted 1967 Plymouth. As she sits behind the wheel, the car will be enveloped in fog that allows Nephthys to taxi certain passengers to unique destinations. Nephthys battles her own alcoholic demons, brought on by the death of her twin, and is recently made worse by her worries for her young grand- nephew, Dash, who talks to a ‘River Man’ no one else can see…This book arrived in my mailbox just as I was lining up my lighter summer ‘beach’ reads. I tried reading the book twice during the summer, but both times I was unable to give the book the undivided attention it required. As the temps cooled down, my mood changed accordingly, and I found this book calling to me again- and as they say- the third time was the charm. The novel is not all that long- but it is a densely plotted novel with multiple threads, timeframe shifts, and a large cast of characters, which can be a little confusing if one isn’t paying close enough attention. The writing doesn't appear at all cohesive, in the beginning, which added to my initial struggle- but once I grasped the connections, and the pieces began to click into place, I began to fall under the spell of the lush prose, and the building tension, which was mingled with an underlying melancholy. The story is set in Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood during the 70s - but in a re-imagined- world building manner. Those familiar with this area will certainly understand the author’s view- but for those unfamiliar with the neighborhood’s history, the imagery might not have the same impact. This is a story centered around both the living and the dead. The novel visits, grief and anger, fear and pain, as well as criminal intent and dread. The story strives for peace, healing, and understanding amid danger and the unknown. The language and various locations, worldly or otherwise, are mythical and entrancing. The atmosphere is often heavy and moody, but there’s a ray of hope for the characters I found myself quite concerned about, and for some there was long awaited peace. I am still struggling with how to define this book. While surely, due to the supernatural nature of the story, it could be- and has been- categorized as horror- but while the story is scary, tense, and unsettling- this is not horror in the traditional sense- Unless we put horror in the same frame as magic realism- which is where this book truly lands, in my opinion. It leans towards the spiritual and could fit right into the fantasy genre- but with a crime fiction element. It's also technically a novel of historical fiction- but with the various shades of symbolism and allegory involved, the story has literary value, as well. The book portrays America through both a realistic and fantastical lens, with spiritual battles leading the way to physical ones, taking the reader along for an epic, almost heart-stopping climax. This small book packs a big punch. The author has a huge imagination. The writing, though very unconventional, is well-done. This novel is certainly different from anything else I’ve read in a good long while. I will be keeping my eye on this an author!! 4 stars

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First, it's a bit unfair to compare any writer to any legend such as Toni Morrison. I didn't want to read this book looking for "a new Toni Morrison book" and I wasn't expecting that. Who would want to or could compare? More voices the better. Here, Yejide combines Egyptian siblings Nephthys and Osiris with the history of Yejide's grandmother driving a cab in D.C. It's ghostly, atmospheric, Gothic -- it moves between realms. It's dark... switching between characters, one of them is a child abuser, which is almost a bit much for me, but luckily this perspective only lasts about twenty pages. I can't read an entire book from that perspective. (A child abuser is that LAST voice we need.) The switching perspectives with short chapters can sometimes be tricky, but I think it's used well here. This was quite the ride in the back of Nephthys's cab in 1977 Anacostia and to other ghostly places. If I HAD to compare the book to anything, I'd say it was most similar to Neil Gaiman or 'NOS4A2' by Joe Hill and maybe a dash of the place-as-character with many perspectives of James McBride's 'Deacon King Kong'. But this book is itself. It's a unique book and I'm glad I found it (I was originally drawn to that ghostly PERFECT cover). For an extra treat, find a virtual event with Yejide reading part of the book (or the audiobook) and Yejide's haunted reading style will haunt your reading of the book. **I received this book to review as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Thank you!

[bayleaf_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s 1977 in the New World and Nephthys Kinwell travels Anacostia, a quadrant of Washington, DC in her haunted Plymouth with a dead white girl in the trunk, ferrying wandering souls from one place to another. It’s these creatures of passage for which Morowa Yejidé names her book. These lost souls aren’t Nephthys’ only concern. Her family, dead and alive, consumes her. Osiris, Nephthys’ twin, was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River. Gola, Osiris’ pregnant wife, died of a hit and run. Amber, their daughter, survived the hit and run, only to become The Death Dreamer, writer of obituaries before the deaths occur. Dash, her son, is haunted by an atrocity he’s witnessed and chased by the perpetrator. Red, Dash’s father, is a Vietnam vet running from a crime long committed. All are either dead or surrounded by death.Creatures of Passage is surreal, magical, and heart rendering. It’s not an easy read, but it’s all consuming. The heart of the novel in Morowa Yejidé’s words is “Rather, the worry of man was the worry of all creatures; the Great Fear of all souls seeking passage through the empires of the world…the dread that before they became shadow and mist, they would never find the place where they belong.”

[bale_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

LibraryThing Early Review There are elements of this novel which are well written but, overall, it is artificially melodramatic. The histrionics are hokey and distracting, making the book difficult to read. I gave this novel three stars for concept and character development.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This description-defying novel is set in 1977 in Washington, DC. (Or maybe an alternate version of Washington DC? Or maybe really, really not.) It features, among others: Nephthys, who ferries needy souls from place to place in a haunted car; the spirit of her murdered brother, Osiris; Osiris' daughter, Amber, who foresees death in dreams; Amber's son Dash, who has witnessed something terrible he scarcely understands; Mercy, the child molester who threatens Dash for discovering his secret; and Dash's father, a traumatized wanderer unable to cope with who he became in Vietnam. And it's about a whole complicated stew of human things: loss, violence, racism, family, hope, death, and all the things and people that haunt us. The complex, dreamlike writing style sometimes times struck me as powerful, sometimes merely as strange, and to be honest I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about all of it, but never for a moment did it cease to be interesting, in the good way.

[snash_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A suspenseful, other worldly, and intensely moving portrayal of the travails of man and his encounter with death.

[kmjessica · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When I started reading this story I wasn't quite sure I would like it. I'm not a fan of fantasy books.But the story line and the story in it's self was very good. I think I would have liked it more if the author would have kept it more real life instead of adding names of the states as if it was a different realm, And having one of the main (dead) characters go through some weird transition from the time he died until the end. But I would still recommend this book, like I said the story line was really good and I liked the characters a lot.

[hubblegal-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have mixed feelings about this one. I appreciated the moments of beauty that I found in this book but at times I became completely lost about what it was saying. I knew going in that it was a ghost story with elements of fantasy but I had no idea how extensive that fantasy would be. Half way through, I really began to struggle to continue. I think there will be an audience for this book but I can’t recommend it as a book I truly enjoyed.

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is skillfully written but sometimes takes off on whirlwind journeys that make it difficult to understand exactly what the author is actually trying to express. I have never before read anything by this author, but I do find that she is very good at bringing together a story that is both frightening as well as almost playful. The sum total is an unforgettable blurring of reality and genres. From the haunted Plymouth automobile to the mysteries in the fog in this alternate America and hidden Washington, DC filled with otherworldly landscapes… flawed super-humans…and reluctant ghosts, you will find that no matter what your feelings are about the content… you will know that you have never read anything quiet like it. That having been said...I believe it will take an audience with more Si-Fi tastes rather than supernatural preferences to really give it the appreciation that it deserves. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Akashic Books in exchange for an honest opinion. The views expressed by this reviewer are entirely my own.