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elaesa's review
2.0
This is a spoiler-free review of an eARC.
The Day Ends Like Any Day addresses the difficult to capture and rarely seen topic of what it is like growing up poor in Nigeria while also being conflicted about one’s sexuality and values. However, this novel fails to deliver the depth and emotion that one may expect when delving into these subjects. The characters are diverse enough but extremely difficult to connect with. They are used to give reason to very specific thoughts or actions of the main character alone rather than to weave a complex history that the reader can then observe in a variety of choices made. This gives the book a very stunted cause-and-effect feeling. Each character is featured only briefly before their literary purpose has been served and they are tossed to the side.
The writing in this novel reflects Ogene’s experience as a poet to an irritating degree. It tends to be pretentious, long-winded, and often unbelievable. The narrator takes page after page to reflect on simple occurrences which slows down the story and surprisingly offers very little insight into the character. This book could have easily been achieved in half the final word-count. However, if your desire is to read a novel which reads as a poem you will enjoy this. There are some insightful and well-written passages which suggest that with a few changes this book could make an excellent poem.
Finally, the plot is bland even for a character study. Sam’s life is simply too boring to keep the reader interested. Conversations are brief and flat. Though information is being exchanged, it feels as if you’re reading a news article rather than an authentic exchange between two humans. This contributes to the difficulty to connect with or relate to the characters. The Day Ends Like Any Day was perhaps too ambitious and could have done with more planning and editing.
The Day Ends Like Any Day addresses the difficult to capture and rarely seen topic of what it is like growing up poor in Nigeria while also being conflicted about one’s sexuality and values. However, this novel fails to deliver the depth and emotion that one may expect when delving into these subjects. The characters are diverse enough but extremely difficult to connect with. They are used to give reason to very specific thoughts or actions of the main character alone rather than to weave a complex history that the reader can then observe in a variety of choices made. This gives the book a very stunted cause-and-effect feeling. Each character is featured only briefly before their literary purpose has been served and they are tossed to the side.
The writing in this novel reflects Ogene’s experience as a poet to an irritating degree. It tends to be pretentious, long-winded, and often unbelievable. The narrator takes page after page to reflect on simple occurrences which slows down the story and surprisingly offers very little insight into the character. This book could have easily been achieved in half the final word-count. However, if your desire is to read a novel which reads as a poem you will enjoy this. There are some insightful and well-written passages which suggest that with a few changes this book could make an excellent poem.
Finally, the plot is bland even for a character study. Sam’s life is simply too boring to keep the reader interested. Conversations are brief and flat. Though information is being exchanged, it feels as if you’re reading a news article rather than an authentic exchange between two humans. This contributes to the difficulty to connect with or relate to the characters. The Day Ends Like Any Day was perhaps too ambitious and could have done with more planning and editing.
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