Scan barcode
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, gentrificationlanid's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Torture, Body horror, Child death, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, and Police brutality
sauvageloup's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
an absolute slam-dunk of a book, for sure i will be rereading
pros:
- i'll start with the brilliant setting and how completely grounded the book is in Lagos' every back street and cross-roads, it's past and mythology, it's politics and its languages. Having a demi-god hunting godlings in Nigeria is such a perfect set up, and I loved the Lagos-ness of all of it. I've never been to any part of Nigeria, but I feel like Lagos is an old friend now. I searched up loads of the places and names of streets and finding the specific buildings Okungbowa was referencing was so exciting.
- the folklore!!! all of it new to me and fascinating. The Eyos were so creepy, Ogun strong but sad, Eshu tricksy but not what David assumes of him, the brilliant twin gods, Olokun and his kindness towards the Makoko people, and all the others. I loved the powers they used, David's descriptions of them being two images overlapping, the doorways to other spaces, David coming into his powers using his fire and machetes (love that he was always drawn to knives and then that's what his god weapon was). All the terms were great too: taboos, godlings, godhunter, orisha, etc.
- the structure is kinda unusual, with three shorter, novella-like 'books' within the main one, which did work really well. Each part concluded to an extent, but led onto the next, and i liked that a lot.
- the writing!!! gorgeous, show-stopping, gripping as hell, perfect. The absolute best combination of poetic amazingness with irreverence, too. David's adopted dad, Papa Udi, speaks in pidgin (hope that's right term) throughout and David sometimes replies like that too, which I didn't always understand but liked all the same, it added verisimilitude. Though it was sometimes quite sparse language, it was still so vivid and evocative and i had such a clear picture in my head. Almost all the characters felt super real and I liked David a lot; even though he makes mistakes, he learns from them and he has a strong core of wanting to right by people. Particularly, i liked when he realised he should've included Fati and apologised to her.
- the action scenes! In a myth-based book, you don't always get a lot of gripping violence, but not here! i felt like this would make such a great film or series, because it is so visual. the descriptive writing of most of the book shifts into clear action scenes that I could *see* playing out, very gripping. the sheer badassery in this book just sending goosebumps over your arms when reading!
- oh also! Femi and Shonuga's little relationship was great :) i love to see some queer rep sprinkled in. and honestly i also liked that no romance plot was pushed into David's arc - he has so much going on that trying to shove that it could've ruined it.
cons:
- whilst I loved all of them, there were a few too many characters. I struggled to keep track of all of them, particularly when their names started with the same letter. I lost who Femi, Shonuga, Shonekan and some of the 'O' name gods were, as well as confusing the two 'A' names of god and host. this was a shame, because i was interested in all of them so it would've been great to have spent more time on them so i could really have a grip on them.
- too much location-ing. whilst I did really love the Lagos-ness of it all, sometimes naming all the streets did pull me out of the narrative a bit. i imagine that a person familiar with Lagos would have an absolute delight reading it and recognising everything, but a foreigner needed to re-orientate myself each time. I got confused at the start whether the gods were based on Lagos Island or the mainland, so that could've been explained a bit better. but this was really something i struggled a bit with, but still wouldn't change about the book at all - it made it what it is.
- in the action scenes, i did feel several times that David was just stood there narrating. like, he was saying what all the others were doing and i could only picture him just stood there doing nothing?? which did take me out the action
- i did feel that the ending was wrapped up a little suddenly, there could've been a bit more resolution i thought. i also got confused about what trick exactly Ogun pulled to ensure their victory. also, how did David survive the stab to the chest? and what was David's true name?
- finally, i would've loved to see some more development of David's powers. he loses himself to the chaos and power at times, but manages to rein it in near the end - i would've liked to see more of the training that got him to be able to control it. i love the trope of a character mastering their powers when it's desperately needed, but actually seeing David wrangle and learn about them would've been cool too.
(- unfortunately, the quality of the book itself was lacking. Every time a specific letter/character was printed, there was a faint square box beside it, which was annoying, and there were multiple typos too. whoever the editor or printer was didn't do a great job at all.)
so really, apart from some confusion, my only criticism is that it wasn't longer! i will definitely be hunting out more of Okungbowa's books, because this was amazing. it wasn't perfect, but i liked the good bits so very much, it's still getting 5 stars.
pros:
- i'll start with the brilliant setting and how completely grounded the book is in Lagos' every back street and cross-roads, it's past and mythology, it's politics and its languages. Having a demi-god hunting godlings in Nigeria is such a perfect set up, and I loved the Lagos-ness of all of it. I've never been to any part of Nigeria, but I feel like Lagos is an old friend now. I searched up loads of the places and names of streets and finding the specific buildings Okungbowa was referencing was so exciting.
- the folklore!!! all of it new to me and fascinating. The Eyos were so creepy, Ogun strong but sad, Eshu tricksy but not what David assumes of him, the brilliant twin gods, Olokun and his kindness towards the Makoko people, and all the others. I loved the powers they used, David's descriptions of them being two images overlapping, the doorways to other spaces, David coming into his powers using his fire and machetes (love that he was always drawn to knives and then that's what his god weapon was). All the terms were great too: taboos, godlings, godhunter, orisha, etc.
- the structure is kinda unusual, with three shorter, novella-like 'books' within the main one, which did work really well. Each part concluded to an extent, but led onto the next, and i liked that a lot.
- the writing!!! gorgeous, show-stopping, gripping as hell, perfect. The absolute best combination of poetic amazingness with irreverence, too. David's adopted dad, Papa Udi, speaks in pidgin (hope that's right term) throughout and David sometimes replies like that too, which I didn't always understand but liked all the same, it added verisimilitude. Though it was sometimes quite sparse language, it was still so vivid and evocative and i had such a clear picture in my head. Almost all the characters felt super real and I liked David a lot; even though he makes mistakes, he learns from them and he has a strong core of wanting to right by people. Particularly, i liked when he realised he should've included Fati and apologised to her.
- the action scenes! In a myth-based book, you don't always get a lot of gripping violence, but not here! i felt like this would make such a great film or series, because it is so visual. the descriptive writing of most of the book shifts into clear action scenes that I could *see* playing out, very gripping. the sheer badassery in this book just sending goosebumps over your arms when reading!
- oh also! Femi and Shonuga's little relationship was great :) i love to see some queer rep sprinkled in. and honestly i also liked that no romance plot was pushed into David's arc - he has so much going on that trying to shove that it could've ruined it.
cons:
- whilst I loved all of them, there were a few too many characters. I struggled to keep track of all of them, particularly when their names started with the same letter. I lost who Femi, Shonuga, Shonekan and some of the 'O' name gods were, as well as confusing the two 'A' names of god and host. this was a shame, because i was interested in all of them so it would've been great to have spent more time on them so i could really have a grip on them.
- too much location-ing. whilst I did really love the Lagos-ness of it all, sometimes naming all the streets did pull me out of the narrative a bit. i imagine that a person familiar with Lagos would have an absolute delight reading it and recognising everything, but a foreigner needed to re-orientate myself each time. I got confused at the start whether the gods were based on Lagos Island or the mainland, so that could've been explained a bit better. but this was really something i struggled a bit with, but still wouldn't change about the book at all - it made it what it is.
- in the action scenes, i did feel several times that David was just stood there narrating. like, he was saying what all the others were doing and i could only picture him just stood there doing nothing?? which did take me out the action
- i did feel that the ending was wrapped up a little suddenly, there could've been a bit more resolution i thought. i also got confused about what trick exactly Ogun pulled to ensure their victory. also, how did David survive the stab to the chest? and what was David's true name?
- finally, i would've loved to see some more development of David's powers. he loses himself to the chaos and power at times, but manages to rein it in near the end - i would've liked to see more of the training that got him to be able to control it. i love the trope of a character mastering their powers when it's desperately needed, but actually seeing David wrangle and learn about them would've been cool too.
(- unfortunately, the quality of the book itself was lacking. Every time a specific letter/character was printed, there was a faint square box beside it, which was annoying, and there were multiple typos too. whoever the editor or printer was didn't do a great job at all.)
so really, apart from some confusion, my only criticism is that it wasn't longer! i will definitely be hunting out more of Okungbowa's books, because this was amazing. it wasn't perfect, but i liked the good bits so very much, it's still getting 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, War, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Grief, Cursing, Death, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Vomit, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Murder, Gun violence, Genocide, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Domestic abuse and Sexism
blackrabbitrun'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
erinsbookshelves's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Gore, and Blood
More...