Before the Daughter was born into this world, her Earth mother conspired with Luna, the village witch, to murder her. To replace her with another daughter created from the sperm of the dark lord, Apollyon Diabolus, who resides in the third hell. Remanded there by Semperian, the universal designer and protector of Source, the Apollyon energy is the most diabolical force witnessed in a millennium—and difficult to defeat.
This literary fiction fantasy, paranormal, and magical realism tale connects the universe and the Earth world with roots in two of the most powerful West African empires in the 1600s: Mali and Songhai. From there, trace the slave trade across Europe and into the Americas landing in the fictitious town of Baldwin, Alabama built exclusively for immigrants, known as Towners.
Towners will die from an outbreak of smallpox, following the hanging of an enslaved African prince in 1636. It is with his royal blood that the town founder, Thonis Baldwin, and the deceased Towners returned to enjoy life immortal and wealth, but not without impending consequences.
That evil secured by a blood covenant enrages Semperian, which sends its Daughter to Earth as a human in 1908, to break the covenant, end the third dark realm, or lose Earth and the universe to evil for eternity.
Semperian Daughter is the one Mama carries in her womb and wants dead to make way for demon daughter whose birth will guarantee the Towners' immortality for eternity.
Which daughter will win the battle at the hanging Tree on the Solstice Blood Moon? Join the journey from their birth ending in Baldwin, Alabama, where diverging forces will collide, and fight to maintain Earth and the universe in Semperian light or lose it to eternal darkness ruled by Apollyon Diabolus Fallen 17.
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Amanishakhete’s sense of history and the sacredness of Africa powers this literary fantasy, as the story digs into the dawn of the slave trade, the founding of Baldwin, and how key “Towners,” facing a smallpox epidemic in the 17th century, forged a vicious Blood Covenant involving sacrifices every 17 years, leading to “increased hell on Earth in the coming centuries.” The material is heady and at times demanding, as twin daughters, one embodying good and the other evil, clash from the moment of conception until the fateful solstice blood moon of 1925, when only one can emerge victorious, either releasing or destroying the tortured soul of the Prince.
The novel pulses with pained and mythic imagery like the Hanging Tree (where Baldwin’s residents celebrated “the first African hung in early Alabama”), and there’s aching power in its central metaphor of Towners achieving immortality from “the blood of slain and deceased Africans.” For all the invented history and spiritual elements, including journeys into dark realms and appearances from Lucifer and Satan (or Satana), the narrative moves briskly, at least after some heady introductory material. Earthly scenes edge toward the unsettling–with blood and wombs, snakes and spirits and creatures like a clondike–or the hopeful, as Amanishakhete powerfully emphasizes love, community, and ancestral memory.
Takeaway: Literary fantasy of African myth, blood, and the secret history of an Alabama town.
Comparable Titles: Amos Tutola’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B_
Marketing copy: A-
Wrong Daughter was filled with plots and twists that had me saying, “Wow!” A suspenseful read that will have you turning the pages to see what will happen next. I took the book to read on my December cruise and I’m glad that I did because we had a couple of sea days that were best for curling up with a good book. The story was very thought proving and had me taking time to stop a while to allow my imagination to run its course at the time and place of the happenings. Amani Shakhete is a storyteller who knows how to weave amazing detail about the lives of her characters and places. I won’t give any spoilers but just want to say read the book. It will keep you enthralled and at times mesmerized.
