Reviews

Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde

isaiahyip's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

reeiro's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Quite possibly the greatest book I've ever read. Eloghosa is unapolgetically Nigerian, unapologetically brave and a master of their craft. The prose is so rich and so insightful, I found myself having to take breaks to digest what I read so I could feel it fully in my chest. Eloghosa is a gift and a literary genius. I will read anything they write.

ninafroms's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-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? No

4.75

earth2dunz's review against another edition

dark funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

nonatibynature's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

😭 I needed to read this. It has the fucked up fairytale-meets-reality vibe I can’t get enough of. I’ll be revisiting this one.

matheo96gro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

michkeenah's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars. extremely beautifully written book, there are so many sentences that jumped at me. the story of johnny literally left me speechless (no pun intended). but the pacing off was just a bit off for me, unfortunately :( it started off very strongly with the short stories but the second half of the book is where the plot became sacrificed in order to make the theme and messaging more obvious, and it just lost momentum for me. regardless, really excited to see what eloghosa osunde comes out with next!

tatyanavogt's review against another edition

3.0

3.25 rounded down

Okay, so this was a pretty interesting experience because I was very confused at first and wasn't totally enjoying the book. I feel like it wasn't until later where the point was brought up in a way that everything made sense to me and I don't think it was necessary to wait. After that moment I got more connected and ended up appreciating and liking what the book did.

I am thinking that I might need to re-read this in the future knowing what I now know and I might end up enjoying it more then. But it does not have a clear plot line and is kind of a "random" collection of moments that different people are experiencing that fit within this 'Vagabond' category. Admittedly that isn't usually my cup of tea in general but I did really enjoy some of the moments that we got and I wonder if there were hints at things earlier on that I just missed. I dunno.

iku978's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the book of the century. Every queer African across the diaspora needs to read this story’s. Every chapter written with love and holding incredible truths that leave you yearning for the authors words to come to life. Thank you for giving us this

dliterate's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed the magical realism (and light smattering of sci-fi?) of Vagabonds!, and think that it served the exploration of more realistic themes (of socioeconomic inequality, queerphobia, sexism, etc.) well. I actually think I'd really enjoy this as a Black Mirror-esque TV show, with each episode zooming in on an aspect of this fantastical version of Nigeria.

In its current format as a novel, though? I have to admit, I struggled a bit.

I would have liked a bit more structure to the whole thing, with more of a follow-through than the broad theme of vagabonds being society's outsiders. Why or how did these fantastical elements come to be? Is this a worldwide phenomenon, or something specific to Nigeria? Does everyone know about what's going on, or is this something hidden from the majority of people? I would have loved some world building to address these questions. Doing so would have done a lot to bring this together as a novel rather than a collection of short stories.

As for the stories themselves: I liked more than I disliked. There was an interesting array of ideas on display, and I'd be interested in seeing more of this world - as long as it was actually presented as part of a world, and not just a collection of disconnected short stories.