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A review by readwithjoshie
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro
3.0
I’m going to admit right off the bat that this book wasn’t my favourite. So I’ll structure my review slightly different than usual to help you decide if you might want to pick it up!
What worked: I loved the setting (Nigeria) and the characters (all of them were compelling, flawed, realistic, frustrating, wonderful) and the plot.
I know it sounds weird to enjoy all of the core components of a story and ultimately walk away not having liked the book.
What didn’t work for me: I was not able to really get into a flow with the writing style. It is incredibly poetic, with little poems even sprinkled throughout. There is also some slang and colloquialisms that are used to create Andy Africa’s narrative voice. Additionally there were some passages with mathematical theorems and equations. There was something about these things that just didn’t work for me, but I own that this is a me problem.
I would recommend this book for folks who enjoy stories set on the African continent, who like character driven stories, and who like a coming of age story.
I’m very grateful to Bloomsbury for sending me an advanced copy to review.
What worked: I loved the setting (Nigeria) and the characters (all of them were compelling, flawed, realistic, frustrating, wonderful) and the plot.
I know it sounds weird to enjoy all of the core components of a story and ultimately walk away not having liked the book.
What didn’t work for me: I was not able to really get into a flow with the writing style. It is incredibly poetic, with little poems even sprinkled throughout. There is also some slang and colloquialisms that are used to create Andy Africa’s narrative voice. Additionally there were some passages with mathematical theorems and equations. There was something about these things that just didn’t work for me, but I own that this is a me problem.
I would recommend this book for folks who enjoy stories set on the African continent, who like character driven stories, and who like a coming of age story.
I’m very grateful to Bloomsbury for sending me an advanced copy to review.