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diana_eveline 's review for:
We Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo
"Look at them leaving in droves, arm in arm with loss and lost, look at them leaving in droves."
Darling and her friends grow up in Zimbabwe. After her village is bulldozer, they all move to a place they call Paradise. The children play games and turn villages into their own foreign places they can travel too. They see things children shouldn't see but know no better than to look closely and learn things beyond their years. They all secretly dream of leaving Paradise for something more, like the riches the white people that visit seem to have. Darling gets an opportunity to change her life but only finds herself more lost than she was in Paradise.
A very powerful story of kids trying to come into their own in harsh conditions. What struck me most was how clear and understandable Darling's confusion with her own identity was portrayed. Things do not just come back together when you leave the place you grew up in, especialy when you feel like you can never go back to it once you have left. She is left in a sort of inbetween, a horrid place to be for a young girl.
The first half of the book was more powerful than the second half, hence the three stars. There was a little too much mundane background in the scenes for me. I also enjoyed getting to know the friendgroup back in Paradise and was hoping to get updates on how they were doing.
Darling and her friends grow up in Zimbabwe. After her village is bulldozer, they all move to a place they call Paradise. The children play games and turn villages into their own foreign places they can travel too. They see things children shouldn't see but know no better than to look closely and learn things beyond their years. They all secretly dream of leaving Paradise for something more, like the riches the white people that visit seem to have. Darling gets an opportunity to change her life but only finds herself more lost than she was in Paradise.
A very powerful story of kids trying to come into their own in harsh conditions. What struck me most was how clear and understandable Darling's confusion with her own identity was portrayed. Things do not just come back together when you leave the place you grew up in, especialy when you feel like you can never go back to it once you have left. She is left in a sort of inbetween, a horrid place to be for a young girl.
The first half of the book was more powerful than the second half, hence the three stars. There was a little too much mundane background in the scenes for me. I also enjoyed getting to know the friendgroup back in Paradise and was hoping to get updates on how they were doing.