Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - God's Children are Little Broken Things: Stories

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

God's Children are Little Broken Things: Stories by Arinze Ifeakandu

9 reviews

internationalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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booksillremember's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

A dark, lyrical, intimate and sometimes even hopeful short story collection centring gay boys and men in a country where being gay is illegal and highly stigmatised. But it's so much more than that. It's about gratitude and grief, jealousy, betrayal, coming of age, parenthood, friendship, trust, complex family constellations, and the dynamics between members of different social classes. I feel this book gave me an intimate little glimpse into Nigerian families (especially life in the northern city of Kano) and male ways of loving. Looking forward to reading more books by Ifeakandu.

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chloecc15's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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fatkidatheartreads's review against another edition

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4.75

4.75 stars 🌟 Such beautiful tender lines. Some of these stories snatched my breath away while some were so visceral they split my heart in two. How is this a debut? I can't wait to see what more Arinze has to offer.

P.S I NEED to read more African centered queer stories.

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nini23's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective sad tense

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

This award-winning collection of short stories by Arinze Ifeakandu set in Nigeria is exceptional. There are nine stories altogether and each of them is crafted skillfully imbued with grace and empathy. For me, they are the rare combination of being heart-rendingly moving and stellar technical writing. From the first story 'The Dreamer's Litany' to the last 'Mother's Love,' the introspective worlds of gay characters wrestling with precarious found happiness and societal intolerance are immersive and gripping. Incidentally, both these bookending stories are the ones I value the most highly although there is not a single limp forgettable story or setting in the whole collection.
From the cold harmattan wind blowing in to the arid Kano plains, the grassy campus of the University of Nigeria in Nsukka and the big city bustle of Lagos, the settings are evocative. I appreciate deeply the code-switching of languages between pidgin, Hausa, Igbo, English etc. to highlight shifting situations and relationships. The simmering tension between certain Yoruba and Igbo characters was conveyed subtly and sensitively.

Arinze Ifeakandu is definitely a writer to watch who has been receiving well-deserved accolades from literary luminaries.

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

God’s Children are Little Broken Things is a beautiful yet decidedly melancholic collection of short stories, all involving gay love in Nigeria. The love aspect was beautiful. As was the evocative writing. What was not was the price men were forced to pay for that love, coming up against homophobia, both personal and systematic. Witnessing the toll homophobia extracted was heartbreaking. At yet despite the risks, the censure, the violence, the ostracism, the gay men in these stories continued to be themselves, albeit sometimes in secrecy, and to love who they loved. The stories covered a variety of different situations and were written in different styles, points of view etc yet there wasn’t a dud amongst them. The collection is unabashedly Nigerian and as a result I suspect there were additional layers that I did not pick up on. Yet I never felt like I was missing out on anything for there was also an essence of universality in these stories. Definitely a book I’d recommend.

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bookreviewswithkb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

5.0

“if this was love, i thought, why did i feel so mired, so squeezed out of air? why had we wound up here, struggling to breathe, restless in each other’s presence?”

this quote is a representation of one of the main themes present throughout each story in this collection - the push and pull of queer love, the factors (families, culture, repressive laws, expectations of masculinity) outside of each relationship that squeeze the air from couples, the lack of acceptance of queerness that makes loving each other a struggle in and of itself, but also beautiful, and transformative, and the deepest display of vulnerability

i saw this book at the library and chose it simply for it’s beautiful cover and poetic title - i’m so glad i did. i highly recommend this collection

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linguaphile412's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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alenezela99's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

God's children are broken things is a collection of nine short stories which depict the realities of queer people ( especially gay men )living in Nigeria. It explores themes of love, loss and grief.
The writing was vivid and beautiful, rich with some Nigerian languages ( Igbo and Hausa) and slang. I also liked that the author incorporated so much music in the book. The characters felt like real people that I have met and seen a glimpse into their lives.
All the stories in this collection were excellent but my favourites were
🖤 What the singers say about love
🖤 God's children are little broken things
🖤 Alobam
🖤 The dreamer's litany
🖤 Where the heart sleeps

I highly recommend this book, everyone needs to read it!

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