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A review by abbie_
The Street Hawker's Apprentice by Kabir Kareem-Bello
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
I just finished up The Street Hawker’s Apprentice and while it was not a favourite from the Twenty in 2020 collection, it did redeem itself by the second half. I found it a bit repetitive in the first half, but it did pick up steam in the second, with more backstory revealed and more characters introduced! But then I did say to Nadia @the.storygraph (we’re buddy reading them all!) that I felt the ending was anticlimactic. So definitely a mixed bag of a read for me!
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I’ve never been to Lagos, but I enjoyed the vibrant, bustling sense of place Kareem-Bello created, which gives way to a darker underbelly as the book progresses. Very dark, in fact! Content warning for sexual assault and torture. There was a lot of Yoruba phrases included, which I liked, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the way direct translations were given in brackets literally within a character’s dialogue. I’m not sure if that was a publisher or author choice, but I prefer a more subtle explanation later on, or just working it out from context - or Google!
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But the book has a lot to say about class, corruption and the wealth gap in Nigeria which was very interesting! We have two main characters from very different backgrounds going toe to toe. Similar to Ugly Dogs Don’t Cry, the main friendship is between two young boys. Sometimes the speed at which their relationship went from besties to animosity almost gave me whiplash, but I guess that’s teenage boys for you?? 😂
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I’ve never been to Lagos, but I enjoyed the vibrant, bustling sense of place Kareem-Bello created, which gives way to a darker underbelly as the book progresses. Very dark, in fact! Content warning for sexual assault and torture. There was a lot of Yoruba phrases included, which I liked, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the way direct translations were given in brackets literally within a character’s dialogue. I’m not sure if that was a publisher or author choice, but I prefer a more subtle explanation later on, or just working it out from context - or Google!
.
But the book has a lot to say about class, corruption and the wealth gap in Nigeria which was very interesting! We have two main characters from very different backgrounds going toe to toe. Similar to Ugly Dogs Don’t Cry, the main friendship is between two young boys. Sometimes the speed at which their relationship went from besties to animosity almost gave me whiplash, but I guess that’s teenage boys for you?? 😂
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Torture, Violence, Murder