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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I didn't even know this book wasn't a true story until I looked at goodreads when I was 35 pages in. I just can't bring myself to finish this book knowing it was written by a white woman. I feel like she's profiting off of terrorism and a story that is not at all hers to tell.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Trafficking, Sexual harassment
Kidnapping, Boko Haram, religion, escape
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, War
Moderate: Pregnancy
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a deceptively simple novel, written with grace. It is about cruelty and redemption and how one girl survives a horror that is unimaginable and at the same time very real. Set in contemporary, northern Nigeria, the novel looks at the issue of terrorism through the eyes of one young girl.
Along with dozens of other school girls, the narrator is kidnapped by Boko Haram, herded into a truck and driven to a military camp in the middle of a jungle. There the girls will be 'forcibly converted, gang raped, and parceled out as 'wives' to reward individual terrorists. Some will be sold to buyers in Saudi Arabia, in order to finance Boko Haram; some will be pawns in prisoner exchanges with the Nigerian government. All will be forced to cook, clean and care for Boko Haram soldiers.
Our narrator is lucky--her husband is relatively kind. During an assault on the camp by Nigerian forces, she escapes with her baby and a friend named Buki. Helped by herders who themselves are persecuted, she gradually works her way to a Nigerian military camp. What happens next takes up the bulk of the book. At the camp, she is accused of being a suicide bomber, interrogated repeatedly, robbed and then used as a show piece by the Nigerian government, until she is returned to her home village. Her father has died of grief and her traumatized mother now lives with an uncle, who wants nothing to do with the tainted narrator. No one in the village trusts her. Her baby is taken from her.
Throughout it all, she survives with her humanity still intact. This is not an unrelenting horror story, but a skillful look at social issues that are tearing Nigeria apart. There is kindness and hope, though I did wonder at the ending. An Irish order of nuns offer the girl refuge and, ultimately, a future. The nuns smacked a little of white saviors. In this girl's position, which many hundreds of real-life girls are, I would grab any help given, but I think more could have been made of the Nigerians themselves who are helping these girls to rebuild their lives.
O'Brien is, of course, an immensely skilled writer, so it is no surprise that this is a highly readable piece of social justice fiction. As she says in her afterward, she interviewed many kidnapped girls in IDP camps and elsewhere during the three years it took to write this novel. She does give full credit to them and to the Nigerian activists working with them, like Dr. Oby Ezkwesili, who coined slogan "Bring Back Our Girls". As documentation and as a cry for justice, readers can only agree.
Along with dozens of other school girls, the narrator is kidnapped by Boko Haram, herded into a truck and driven to a military camp in the middle of a jungle. There the girls will be 'forcibly converted, gang raped, and parceled out as 'wives' to reward individual terrorists. Some will be sold to buyers in Saudi Arabia, in order to finance Boko Haram; some will be pawns in prisoner exchanges with the Nigerian government. All will be forced to cook, clean and care for Boko Haram soldiers.
Our narrator is lucky--her husband is relatively kind. During an assault on the camp by Nigerian forces, she escapes with her baby and a friend named Buki. Helped by herders who themselves are persecuted, she gradually works her way to a Nigerian military camp. What happens next takes up the bulk of the book. At the camp, she is accused of being a suicide bomber, interrogated repeatedly, robbed and then used as a show piece by the Nigerian government, until she is returned to her home village. Her father has died of grief and her traumatized mother now lives with an uncle, who wants nothing to do with the tainted narrator. No one in the village trusts her. Her baby is taken from her.
Throughout it all, she survives with her humanity still intact. This is not an unrelenting horror story, but a skillful look at social issues that are tearing Nigeria apart. There is kindness and hope, though I did wonder at the ending. An Irish order of nuns offer the girl refuge and, ultimately, a future. The nuns smacked a little of white saviors. In this girl's position, which many hundreds of real-life girls are, I would grab any help given, but I think more could have been made of the Nigerians themselves who are helping these girls to rebuild their lives.
O'Brien is, of course, an immensely skilled writer, so it is no surprise that this is a highly readable piece of social justice fiction. As she says in her afterward, she interviewed many kidnapped girls in IDP camps and elsewhere during the three years it took to write this novel. She does give full credit to them and to the Nigerian activists working with them, like Dr. Oby Ezkwesili, who coined slogan "Bring Back Our Girls". As documentation and as a cry for justice, readers can only agree.