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Bye-Bye, Babaroga
It’s time for Babaroga to crawl out of her cave and set her story straight… so to speak.
Getting a job at a plastic surgery clinic working with a man everybody calls “Butcher” wasn’t bad enough for Kaja—she had to go and join the company’s team building in the remote woodlands of Kalnik, too. Pestered by the heavy rain and heavier fog, all the while navigating booze, hunting, and more unwanted advances from her straight colleagues than could fit into the lodge’s hot tub, Kaja has a personal nightmare to deal with as well—the one who has been haunting her ever since she was a child.
Inviting an old wives’ tale into a modern-day marketing plan as her final chance of making it in the clinic is only bound to make it worse.
Because Kaja’s nightmare visitor seems to have followed along, too… straight back to the place where the legend itself began, bathed in the blood of a long-forgotten tale of sacrifice and forbidden love.
Getting a job at a plastic surgery clinic working with a man everybody calls “Butcher” wasn’t bad enough for Kaja—she had to go and join the company’s team building in the remote woodlands of Kalnik, too. Pestered by the heavy rain and heavier fog, all the while navigating booze, hunting, and more unwanted advances from her straight colleagues than could fit into the lodge’s hot tub, Kaja has a personal nightmare to deal with as well—the one who has been haunting her ever since she was a child.
Inviting an old wives’ tale into a modern-day marketing plan as her final chance of making it in the clinic is only bound to make it worse.
Because Kaja’s nightmare visitor seems to have followed along, too… straight back to the place where the legend itself began, bathed in the blood of a long-forgotten tale of sacrifice and forbidden love.
151 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 26, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 20, 2025
5 things I loved about Bye Bye Babaroga :
1. The setting - gloomy woods in Zagorje, cabin in the woods, small village - they all felt so real, so fleshed out and made me feel immersed in story
2. Dark humour strewn through the novella
3. Incredibly raw and touching depictions of internalized homophobia, mental ilness. Also sleep paralysis, I found myself nodding my head at the descriptions of Kaja's nightly terrors.
4. A chance to vent out your rage at your boss and coworkers 👀👀 I mean, we've all been there
5. Babaroga 🖤 I just think she's cool, okay? While I liked Kaja's story, I completely fell in love with Babaroga's backstory and would want to read so much more about her (go piss girl!)
1. The setting - gloomy woods in Zagorje, cabin in the woods, small village - they all felt so real, so fleshed out and made me feel immersed in story
2. Dark humour strewn through the novella
3. Incredibly raw and touching depictions of internalized homophobia, mental ilness. Also sleep paralysis, I found myself nodding my head at the descriptions of Kaja's nightly terrors.
4. A chance to vent out your rage at your boss and coworkers 👀👀 I mean, we've all been there
5. Babaroga 🖤 I just think she's cool, okay? While I liked Kaja's story, I completely fell in love with Babaroga's backstory and would want to read so much more about her (go piss girl!)
October 19, 2024
I had a lot of fun with Bye-Bye Babaroga and its concepts of beauty, terror and normalcy. I especially liked the parallels drawn between the everyday horrors of modern corporate life and the oppresive atmosphere of close-knit communities in a typical medieval village. Kaja and Babaroga made for a great narrative dynamic, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Even Kaja's work colleagues were very vividly fleshed out, playing with common Croatian tropes and archetypal characters. The ending was especially satisfying, and I can't wait to read more of Ivana's work.
September 18, 2024
*was provided the ARC by the publisher, the review is my own
This is a horror novella with elements of Slavic mythology. The story of Babaroga was my favorite part.
In this story we follow Kaja as she deals with her colleagues during a team building event set in the mountains. Her work as a cosmetic surgeon is not bringing her joy and most of her colleagues are awful humans and we find out just how awful as the story goes on. Kaja also suffers from night terrors in which she is stalked, frightened and attacked by Babaroga, an old wives tale creature that is used to scare children into behaving.
I enjoyed reading this novella. It was scary, gross (the horror parts) but also kinda sweet and hopeful at the same time (Kaja coming to terms with who she is). The story offers a critical view of the beauty industry and a satirical one of people in power (Moj tata je u partiji! LOL! BARF!). Overall, for this non horror reader this book was a success.
More, please!
This is a horror novella with elements of Slavic mythology. The story of Babaroga was my favorite part.
In this story we follow Kaja as she deals with her colleagues during a team building event set in the mountains. Her work as a cosmetic surgeon is not bringing her joy and most of her colleagues are awful humans and we find out just how awful as the story goes on. Kaja also suffers from night terrors in which she is stalked, frightened and attacked by Babaroga, an old wives tale creature that is used to scare children into behaving.
I enjoyed reading this novella. It was scary, gross (the horror parts) but also kinda sweet and hopeful at the same time (Kaja coming to terms with who she is). The story offers a critical view of the beauty industry and a satirical one of people in power (Moj tata je u partiji! LOL! BARF!). Overall, for this non horror reader this book was a success.
More, please!
October 10, 2025
The only thing I regret about this book is its lenght. It was a little too short to develop fully the main character. I liked the two stories, the pacing, the characters, the subjects, etc, but I would appreciated a little more details about Kaja and her life, her nightmares... and the relationship between Kaja and Babaroga. But at the end, it was a really good book, with a lot of sad but interesting subjects (like beauty, normality, misogyny...) and touching characters.
November 2, 2024
This book has been on my TBR ever since it has been announced and I'm glad I finally got to it.
There are so many things I liked about it - from the exploration of queerness and conforming to a heteronormative society, to the development of Kaja's (the main character's) relationship with her night terror Babaroga - that it would take me ages to go through it all.
I do, however, want to take a second to highlight the excellent approach on unrealistic beauty standards and the horrors of modern beauty industry. This might as well be one of the main themes of the novella, and the author handles it beautifully.
All in all, this is a relatively short, but very entertaining, emotional, and gruesome read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
There are so many things I liked about it - from the exploration of queerness and conforming to a heteronormative society, to the development of Kaja's (the main character's) relationship with her night terror Babaroga - that it would take me ages to go through it all.
I do, however, want to take a second to highlight the excellent approach on unrealistic beauty standards and the horrors of modern beauty industry. This might as well be one of the main themes of the novella, and the author handles it beautifully.
All in all, this is a relatively short, but very entertaining, emotional, and gruesome read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews