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A review by sowm
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Overall, I wanted to like the book so bad. I did get very close to DNFing it a couple times while reading it though. I thought the premise was good, and at the beginning, I did think it was interesting. I'm not even particularly mad about the ending, although I do have some opinions on how it could have gone instead, while still showing how the American Dream does not hold for everyone.
The book jumps timeframes every now and then, and there isn't always a clear enough distinction which took me out of the story a few times, although it is a minor thing, and if you don't mind it, you will like it. I found the pacing of the book to be pretty good as well, for my preference.
One major thing that I did not like was that Jende, the main character, was pretty misogynistic. While I understand that different cultures have different standards for things, it really hurt, as a woman who comes from a relatively patriarchal culture, to see Jende's wife, Neni, being prevented from following her dreams just because Jende was making decisions. There was also some physical abuse in there which I really hated. While I understand that it was to make the story impactful, it was something that I didn't particularly enjoy reading. I think it was pretty well placed though, and gave us an insight into why Neni kept going along with whatever Jende said
I think this book is a good book, I just did not enjoy it very much, and that is for my own reasons. I thought the writing was good, and you could see that the characters went on a journey, you just did not see very much emotional development from them, and I wasn't a fan of that in particular.
The book jumps timeframes every now and then, and there isn't always a clear enough distinction which took me out of the story a few times, although it is a minor thing, and if you don't mind it, you will like it. I found the pacing of the book to be pretty good as well, for my preference.
I think this book is a good book, I just did not enjoy it very much, and that is for my own reasons. I thought the writing was good, and you could see that the characters went on a journey, you just did not see very much emotional development from them, and I wasn't a fan of that in particular.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Misogyny
Minor: Alcoholism and Drug abuse
There's some general misogyny from the main character towards his wife, as well as some drug use/abuse and alcoholism from one of the side characters. The wife of Jende's employer dies of an alcohol/drug mixture that she overdosed on.