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Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola
2 reviews
the_literarylinguist's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence
now_booking's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I had seen a lot of positive reviews about this book from other Nigerian readers and so I was excited to check this out. Overall, I like this book, even though this was a situation where I liked the idea and mission of the book more than I liked the actual collection. This books comprises of a total of 13 love stories with mostly optimistic endings. In that sense, it can be considered to be a collection of romantic shorts, even if not all the stories can be considered romances per se. The first 10 stories are based off folktales /mythologies / ancient oral traditions from West, North and Southern Africa, the Middle East, China and Greece; the next 2 stories are complete originals from the author, whilst the last story is a real life fairytale based on her parents love story. I loved that the author set out to adapt well-known and lesser known stories, updating them to position female protagonists as the heroines and masters of their own destiny, giving them power and agency that many of the patriarchal tales stripped from them. I give the book major props for its aim and purpose and ambition. And I think for the most part it was well-executed.
For me, my issues with this collection, I think are mostly personal taste-based. I certainly understand why this book has been so highly acclaimed. The quality of the writing and use of language by this debut author, is absolutely stellar. If you are a reader that loves a beautifully-wrought turn of phrase or wittily-crafted nugget of social commentary, this will certainly be the book for you. To me, it is in the language of storytelling and writing and the sharp humour of the observations that this book shines. I’m not the biggest consumer of folk tales but I was somewhat familiar with quite a few of the stories and it was interesting to see how this author adapted and in many cases, modernized some of these problematic narratives. I think someone who enjoys folktales and oral tradition and mythologies would really enjoy this book because these are true adaptations- author doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or retell the exact same story, there is simultaneously enough resemblance and variation that the adaptation is clearly genetically-linked to the original story but is more a second cousin thrice removed, than a full sibling.
As a huge fan of romance and love, interviews I had read from the author revealed a kindred spirit who also loved love and romance, so I went into this knowing to expect optimistic stories. Whilst as I’ve already said the language and storytelling were stellar, I found many of the actual stories a little basic and simple and lacking in enough complexity, time and space to build nuance. Because the author was doing full scale adaptations, changing the worlds where these characters existed, I feel like a lot of energy was spent setting up these new worlds and carefully building scenarios and sometimes less energy was put into differentiating the actual resolutions and relationships between the story. Many of the stories, for me, felt a little too sketchy in the sense of being perfectly-crafted, but then rushed into a too-quick, too easily-won “happy” ending, without much variation from other stories, given the set up. I found myself sometimes not caring about the characters and pairings and wanting more detail and complexity to make me “buy” their love story and in some cases, to convince me that their happy ending was indeed a positive outcome. For me, between the style of the writing, the set up of the stories and the short story format, sometimes the happy endings didn’t really fit with the story in the space of the short story. Perhaps some of these stories needed longer formats, more plot or more complexity after the initial set up. Even though I’m a romance person and most definitely a HEA person (not even so much a HFN person), I found that the bittersweet stories (like Scheherazade, Yaa, Siya and Zhinu) felt the most in sync with the structure of the stories and the most complete, because they felt the least rushed into a particular ending- probably because they had the most open-ended “resolutions.”
I really enjoyed the author’s original stories (Tiara and Orin) which REALLY highlighted her tongue-in-cheek sarcasm that is laugh out loud hilarious in its wit. How will I ever get over the line “Peng boy, don’t play me like a toy.” And the author’s humor and experience in her observations in these two stories and indeed in all of the stories shine through in the most relatable way for me as a Nigerian who grew up in a certain era and I think it also speaks to a global experience of being a young adult or a new adult in the current times. So many of the stories are YA/NA and so many of them feature black Africans and black people in general in situations that are so lived that the author’s authenticity will have you...clicking your hands in the air. I can imagine the kind of rom-coms this author would write and I salivate just thinking about them because her humor, her eye for the absurd and ironic, and her use of language are just *chef’s kiss* when she writes outside the constraints of adapting oral traditions.
This book was hard to rate because I love the concept, I love the writing, the humor, the representation and I enjoy this author’s perspectives- but I wasn’t really passionate about any of the stories. I more or less liked them all, but none stood out as a favourite, they mostly seemed like glimpses of longer romances that I really wanted her to write so I could inhale them. It wasn’t that the stories were in any way bad, they weren’t at all. I just didn’t get the character or plot development that would have made these prettily-written stories compelling for me in a way that would stand out and live in my memory. They were pleasant and satisfying, but the spice didn’t stay on your palate after you had turned the page. That said, with this author’s writing, I’ll read anything she puts out from here on out and with how smart and fun a writer she is, I can’t give this less than 4 stars. She’s ace!
For me, my issues with this collection, I think are mostly personal taste-based. I certainly understand why this book has been so highly acclaimed. The quality of the writing and use of language by this debut author, is absolutely stellar. If you are a reader that loves a beautifully-wrought turn of phrase or wittily-crafted nugget of social commentary, this will certainly be the book for you. To me, it is in the language of storytelling and writing and the sharp humour of the observations that this book shines. I’m not the biggest consumer of folk tales but I was somewhat familiar with quite a few of the stories and it was interesting to see how this author adapted and in many cases, modernized some of these problematic narratives. I think someone who enjoys folktales and oral tradition and mythologies would really enjoy this book because these are true adaptations- author doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or retell the exact same story, there is simultaneously enough resemblance and variation that the adaptation is clearly genetically-linked to the original story but is more a second cousin thrice removed, than a full sibling.
As a huge fan of romance and love, interviews I had read from the author revealed a kindred spirit who also loved love and romance, so I went into this knowing to expect optimistic stories. Whilst as I’ve already said the language and storytelling were stellar, I found many of the actual stories a little basic and simple and lacking in enough complexity, time and space to build nuance. Because the author was doing full scale adaptations, changing the worlds where these characters existed, I feel like a lot of energy was spent setting up these new worlds and carefully building scenarios and sometimes less energy was put into differentiating the actual resolutions and relationships between the story. Many of the stories, for me, felt a little too sketchy in the sense of being perfectly-crafted, but then rushed into a too-quick, too easily-won “happy” ending, without much variation from other stories, given the set up. I found myself sometimes not caring about the characters and pairings and wanting more detail and complexity to make me “buy” their love story and in some cases, to convince me that their happy ending was indeed a positive outcome. For me, between the style of the writing, the set up of the stories and the short story format, sometimes the happy endings didn’t really fit with the story in the space of the short story. Perhaps some of these stories needed longer formats, more plot or more complexity after the initial set up. Even though I’m a romance person and most definitely a HEA person (not even so much a HFN person), I found that the bittersweet stories (like Scheherazade, Yaa, Siya and Zhinu) felt the most in sync with the structure of the stories and the most complete, because they felt the least rushed into a particular ending- probably because they had the most open-ended “resolutions.”
I really enjoyed the author’s original stories (Tiara and Orin) which REALLY highlighted her tongue-in-cheek sarcasm that is laugh out loud hilarious in its wit. How will I ever get over the line “Peng boy, don’t play me like a toy.” And the author’s humor and experience in her observations in these two stories and indeed in all of the stories shine through in the most relatable way for me as a Nigerian who grew up in a certain era and I think it also speaks to a global experience of being a young adult or a new adult in the current times. So many of the stories are YA/NA and so many of them feature black Africans and black people in general in situations that are so lived that the author’s authenticity will have you...clicking your hands in the air. I can imagine the kind of rom-coms this author would write and I salivate just thinking about them because her humor, her eye for the absurd and ironic, and her use of language are just *chef’s kiss* when she writes outside the constraints of adapting oral traditions.
This book was hard to rate because I love the concept, I love the writing, the humor, the representation and I enjoy this author’s perspectives- but I wasn’t really passionate about any of the stories. I more or less liked them all, but none stood out as a favourite, they mostly seemed like glimpses of longer romances that I really wanted her to write so I could inhale them. It wasn’t that the stories were in any way bad, they weren’t at all. I just didn’t get the character or plot development that would have made these prettily-written stories compelling for me in a way that would stand out and live in my memory. They were pleasant and satisfying, but the spice didn’t stay on your palate after you had turned the page. That said, with this author’s writing, I’ll read anything she puts out from here on out and with how smart and fun a writer she is, I can’t give this less than 4 stars. She’s ace!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence
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