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emily_mh's review against another edition
Can’t get into this at the mo, might try again another time!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, Child abuse, Blood, Death, and Murder
Minor: Vomit, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Excrement, Alcohol, Drug use, Physical abuse, Ableism, War, Animal death, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: police corruption, child bride Minor: death of pet, theft, fainting, gentrificationblackrabbitrun's review
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The first time I tried to read this book, I put it down after a chapter thinking "eugh, another tough guy macho main character". Boy have I ever been so glad to be wrong. David is a fantastically faceted main character, made of petulant angers and deep, abiding loves and simple everyday greed, a refreshing respect for people who do things better than he does, and not a bit of incandescent (zing!) fury. I'm having trouble thinking of the last time I liked a male character this much. The human cast of side characters is wonderfully free of narrative clichés and deeply, well, human, though the god characters remain a bit distant, possibly due to the book having roughly a trilogy's worth of plot crammed into 400 pages.
What this book doesn't do is explain anything. If you have no background in Nigerian culture, religions, Lagos geography and the Naija pidgin, prepare to spend a lot of time on google or be very confused. What this book does do is slam you face first into red dirt and tarmac in the apocalyptic remains of a metropolis, blood in your mouth and screaming godlings in your ears and the entire range of human and superhuman emotion roiling inside you. I love a book that hits the ground running through an obstacle course and trusts the reader to keep up, but not everyone will.
What this book doesn't do is explain anything. If you have no background in Nigerian culture, religions, Lagos geography and the Naija pidgin, prepare to spend a lot of time on google or be very confused. What this book does do is slam you face first into red dirt and tarmac in the apocalyptic remains of a metropolis, blood in your mouth and screaming godlings in your ears and the entire range of human and superhuman emotion roiling inside you. I love a book that hits the ground running through an obstacle course and trusts the reader to keep up, but not everyone will.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Confinement
Minor: Pedophilia
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