Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Girl with the Louding Voice

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The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

107 reviews

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

The Run-Down:

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré uses fiction to raise awareness for an important topic, but it rarely transcends this purpose.

Review:

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré is what I call a “Black Beauty novel.” (If there is an actual term for this sort of book, please let me know!) Typically, this type of bildungsroman follows a young protagonist who is smart, kind, and resourceful but entrapped at the bottom-rung of a corrupt social structure and therefore denied the opportunity to live freely. In order to survive, they end up at the mercy of various “masters” throughout their life until a combination of fortune, determination, and/or cleverness allows them a happy ending. These books exist primarily to move their audience to care about a social issue through sympathy with the main character. To call a book a “Black Beauty” novel is neither a condemnation nor a compliment; it is simply a way to understand a book and frame its literary purpose. At their best, such books are captivating, empathetic, and inspiring; at their worst, they can be didactic, condescending, and two-dimensional. The Girl with the Louding Voice walks that tightrope throughout.

The book takes place from the first-person perspective of Adunni, a fourteen-year-old girl who is sold into a polygamous marriage by her destitute and alcoholic widowered father. Daré writes from the girl’s unique vernacular English, a bold choice that contributes to the novel’s sense of voice, although at times it seems she uses this as a crutch in lieu of developing Adunni’s character in more substantial ways. Adunni is smart, hardworking, brave, and empathetic, but otherwise possesses few qualities beyond these requisite traits to provide her with sufficient depth. Similarly, the cast of characters fills their “Black Beauty novel” roles: we have her sweet, intelligent (and, of course, dead) mother, her lazy alcoholic father, her loving younger brother, and several evil traffickers of various types. These characters are rarely developed much beyond these roles, although at times Daré surprises in this regard with an anecdote, mannerism, or touching moment. It is almost as if one can sense when the novel’s subject matter touches upon the author’s personal experiences and when it remains largely inspired by the aspirational constraints of imaginative empathy. Another aspect of the novel that gives it texture beyond the rather formulaic storyline is Daré’s vibrant descriptions of rural and urban life in Nigeria. Her righteous anger at Nigeria’s rampant corruption and wealth gap is developed not only through Adunni’s heart-wrenching situation but through small observations—for example, that some Nigerian bus drivers sell the rights to their own seat in order to make more money. For every instance of insight, however, there is at least one trite moment of moralism that prevents The Girl with the Louding Voice from transcending its archetypal roots.

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