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chloebethx_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
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? Yes
5.0
lucyp21's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know where I got the rec for this book but it was on Kindle Unlimited so I was more than happy to try it out. And it was a bit of a strange one. Warnings for physical abuse, racism, police brutality and quite graphic violence.
This was described as a 'coming of age' of sorts but I really don't agree with that description. Dele is born in London to African parents and goes to Oxford for university, fulfilling their parents' hopes for their children to have better lives. He has to juggle between British and being African, while dealing with racism, both overt and subtle, and having to come to terms with his family as it is. Dele's sister, Dappo, also plays a big role in this book as the person Dele is closest to in the world.
This book came out in the 90s and was contemporary at the time it was written, so we have a lot of pre-internet London culture which was interesting to read about from the perspective of someone living it, rather than someone looking back on it twenty years later. It was an interesting setting because while I was alive in 1996, I wasn't an adult, I didn't live in London and I'm not black. It was good to read about a completely different perspective to my own, one I don't see highlighted especially in the nineties. However, there were issues being highlighted in this book that are still happening now, such as police brutality. This book centres around Dele and how he deals with police brutality having a major impact on his family and his life. I kept reading about this situation and how Dele was dealing with it and wondering how it would go down in the age of the internet. It was fascinating reading about the impact of the press on things like that, when alternative perspectives were much harder to find.
That said, we would get distracted from the main plot and look on Dele's romantic exploits which got a little tiresome after a while when he didn't seem to learn from them at all.No shit you get caught two-timing, I could have predicted that was going to happen.
I will say about this book though - every time I had a question about something like where Dele was getting his money from and what was going on with Dappo, the question would come up in the next few pages. This book also had a way of drawing you back in. I was tempted to put the book down a few times, especially when the book seemed to move away from the brother-sister relationship (my favourite part of the book) but then something else would spark my interest (Gabriel, Dele's father, Dele's mother) and I would be pulled back in. And I really liked the ending.
3.5 stars!
This was described as a 'coming of age' of sorts but I really don't agree with that description. Dele is born in London to African parents and goes to Oxford for university, fulfilling their parents' hopes for their children to have better lives. He has to juggle between British and being African, while dealing with racism, both overt and subtle, and having to come to terms with his family as it is. Dele's sister, Dappo, also plays a big role in this book as the person Dele is closest to in the world.
This book came out in the 90s and was contemporary at the time it was written, so we have a lot of pre-internet London culture which was interesting to read about from the perspective of someone living it, rather than someone looking back on it twenty years later. It was an interesting setting because while I was alive in 1996, I wasn't an adult, I didn't live in London and I'm not black. It was good to read about a completely different perspective to my own, one I don't see highlighted especially in the nineties. However, there were issues being highlighted in this book that are still happening now, such as police brutality. This book centres around Dele and how he deals with police brutality having a major impact on his family and his life. I kept reading about this situation and how Dele was dealing with it and wondering how it would go down in the age of the internet. It was fascinating reading about the impact of the press on things like that, when alternative perspectives were much harder to find.
That said, we would get distracted from the main plot and look on Dele's romantic exploits which got a little tiresome after a while when he didn't seem to learn from them at all.
I will say about this book though - every time I had a question about something like where Dele was getting his money from and what was going on with Dappo, the question would come up in the next few pages. This book also had a way of drawing you back in. I was tempted to put the book down a few times, especially when the book seemed to move away from the brother-sister relationship (my favourite part of the book) but then something else would spark my interest (Gabriel, Dele's father, Dele's mother) and I would be pulled back in. And I really liked the ending.
3.5 stars!
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