Scan barcode
kirsten0929's review against another edition
4.0
[2018] I wasn’t sure this book was for me, what with the spirits and all, and I almost took it back to the library unread. So glad I didn’t. It read like a memoir (the author has said it is highly autobiographical) and what made it for me was the point of view. The spirits are inside her, narrating their own thoughts and actions and why they make her think and do what she does, so it’s kind of a third person first person. So much more interesting that a straight up “I” narration. The spirits, ogbanje, believed to be real by the main character, Ada, seemed to me to represent those voices in our heads, those voices that make us act the way we do whether it’s in our best interest or not, that devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other kind of thing. The voices deep down that are often our defense mechanisms or our instincts for self preservation that can also be incredibly destructive. At some point, these voices tip over in to mental illness, which is what is being explored here.
blueberrybanana's review against another edition
4.0
this is like nothing i've ever read before. it's not an experience i could have imagined before this, what it means to be something close to a god, godhood but in a human body. it was hard at first to adjust to that, or try to imagine living it. i guess i can't - but that's something i think is so cool about this book, emezi writes from where they are, and you meet them there (they've talked abt this in interviews! toni morrison quote!) i know my understanding is v v limited, but yeah. this book is compelling, the writing is poetic as fuck, idk. v good. v worth reading
jesuisgourde's review against another edition
2.0
I was so disappointed by this book. The blurb on the back made it sound like it was going to be really beautiful and interesting and unique. It wasn't. It was all tell and no show. Which can be okay, I've read plenty of tell-rather-than-show novels, but what makes books like those good is an interesting plot or the main character having interesting thoughts/opinions. This book had neither. There was almost no plot, just description after description of Ada's unhealthy relationships and erratic behavior. But because the narrative is so distanced from said relationships and from Ada, the high stakes of this behavior is not felt, not really. None of the characters get delved into with any depth, even Ada. Random facts about her life at university or her childhood are tossed in without much thought in order to further a scene or explain an action, but we don't get a sense of her at all. She apparently is going to vet school, we get none of that. She's valedictorian, but we don't get any sense of her academic intelligence. She goes dancing every night but then has debilitating sciatica that she needs medications for (when did that happen?). People think she's sweet or that she takes care of other people, but we never get a sense of that, ever, because the only narrative is her sleeping with men and then her relationships falling apart either because of her behavior or because the men are assholes. The show rather than tell narrative also seriously undermines the poetic prose that crops up almost at random. If the rest of the book was more vivid, the flowery prose would have had a place. But this book felt flat. No plot, little stakes felt, no interesting characters, tell rather than showing everything. I read it so quickly, and it felt like I was just flying along in a flat desert with absolutely nothing interesting to look at or think about.
If I had known from the start that this book was essentially an embellished autobiography, Robert Pirsig-style, I would have maybe made some concessions while reading it, because it is straightforward and bland in a way that telling a personal story is, where you don't have to flesh out original characters because they're just regular people to you. But I only learned this 3/4 of the way through the book when I googled the author. So, reading it as a regular novel and not embellished nonfiction, it is uninteresting and not compelling at all.
If I had known from the start that this book was essentially an embellished autobiography, Robert Pirsig-style, I would have maybe made some concessions while reading it, because it is straightforward and bland in a way that telling a personal story is, where you don't have to flesh out original characters because they're just regular people to you. But I only learned this 3/4 of the way through the book when I googled the author. So, reading it as a regular novel and not embellished nonfiction, it is uninteresting and not compelling at all.
rouyourboat's review against another edition
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Perfect. Something I didn’t know
I needed.
I needed.
jfaberrit's review against another edition
5.0
An amazingly written debut novel, extremely strong with respect to both the language and the characters, all of whom share the same physical body. Emezi is masterful at getting the different voices inhabiting the Ada down, both in their agreements and their tension, and any flaws in the overall drive of the plot are more than covered by the prose and the vividness of the character. To the extent I have a complaint, it's actually with some of the reviewers of the book -- Emezi frequently discusses issues in extremely vivid but elliptical descriptions -- Anuli's childhood incident and Ada's whole relationship with Soren fit in this category -- but a number of the reviews seem to want to place more definitive interpretations on these events than the book itself actually justifies. For the latter especially, we know that Ada is not only a reliable narrator but a multi-faceted one at that, and that the relationship is far from consensual, but much of her interactions with Soren are a negative space in her memories and feelings, and I think it takes away from what Emezi is trying to accomplish by inserting a fixed interpretation over Emezi's own words. They chose their words and descriptions, that is the book they wrote, and that is the book we read. It's a very good one!
usernameinvalid's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
katemc's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
brigits's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mtstellens's review against another edition
4.0
Ada is a young Nigerian woman who is born split between worlds, she is a human with gods inside her, gods that often use her body for their own whims. An incredibly dark story about identity and mental illness. Ada begins to self harm to appease the gods after she sees the death of her sibling and then being sent to the US away from her family for education. She dissociates after being raped by her partner, she allows this altar to front drink/ have sex. She has another altar that is a male (St. Vincent) who she keeps very much a secret. The altars both protect her from trauma and stop her from getting help. Eventually they are able to be in a better place, having tattoos to serve as remembrances of what they have gone through and chest surgery to feel more comfortable in their body before passing away. Another one that has a lot of content warnings. It reminds me a bit of 'A Little Life,' it is dark throughout the book and attempts to illustrate how trauma can compound, I definitely think it is better written than 'A Little Life' and tackles it's subject matter in more interesting and nuanced ways. It is another book that can feel very dreamlike, it can be hard to get into or understand at first, and the moments that pierce through the dream are incredibly dark. We are held in Ada's mind for the most part, so we don't know much about what she is doing in her day to day or how she is living, yet we know this character on such a deep personal level, it makes for a very interesting contrast.