A review by clovetra
Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec

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

2.0

fellow melburnian book!!!!!!  i really loved that this book is written not only by a fellow young person, but a young melburnian!!!!! shout out to kgshak akec 🔥🔥 also shout out my library for having a copy of this 💪💪
i really enjoyed the characters, they were truly at the heart of this book. santo was probably the most compelling character, as he had layers to his character, and went through the most change. i do think this book started strong when the family were in egypt, but once they came to australia, they lost all their spark. this is probably best seen in both akita and taresai, both with different issues. taresai became quite one dimensional, repeating the same phrases and sentiments, and not really saying anything new. akita’s character did grow, but it felt like her dialogue was incredibly juvenile the entire time, even by the end of the story. 
i also think the pacing of the story was slightly off. akita starts the story as a toddler and ends in her early 20s, but with 346 pages, it feels like we breeze past a lot too fast. i think her childhood in egypt was paced well, but once in australia, everything flew too fast without further exploration. it became a book of telling, not showing. the rest of the siblings almost had no personality whatsoever, occasionally having some dialogue but even then it was very generic.
there really was no story or plot like here. i think that’s really the fatal flaw with this. before the deng’s arrived in australia, the plot was following them in egypt, with ashanti in the hospital and struggling to get by. the minute we arrive in australia its almost like the plot dissolves because there is nothing there tension-wise. with the constant time skips, there really IS no tension, and instead i feel like im reading a not very interesting memoir.
that sounds so shady oh my fucking god. 
i feel at times there was a lot of context missing too. it felt like the book almost touched on issues facing immigrants on a surface level, where it went nowhere. i wanted to truly dig deeper and explore more, but it felt like there were only the beginnings of conversations, not anything more than that. 
i feel so bad writing a negative review for smaller authors. i really wanted to love this seeing as it’s set somewhere i know. like the mention of melbourne uni i was like “Oh!!!!! 👆 I know that place!!!!” or even like the beach i was like “I’ve been there!!!!!!”. so i really really tried to adore this. i do feel this is a story needing to be told, and a story that truly did open my eyes to things i didn’t even consider regarding immigrant familiy dynamics that are different to mine. but sadly i don’t think this book exactly pulled it off.
i want to rip my eyes out i feel so bad writing this 
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