Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

[b:I Do Not Come to You by Chance|6265288|I Do Not Come to You by Chance|Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1236695900s/6265288.jpg|6448541] is fascinating from the stand point of the setting. As a novice on Nigerian culture & history, I found Nwaubani's loving and honest depiction fascinating. Kingsley's struggle as the opara of his family, who is therefore obligated to provide for his younger siblings and ailing mother, but who doesn't have the "long-leg" to get a job using his degree is both manifestly Nigerian and understandable to anyone who has loved academia. Nwaubani takes care to paint the "419 scams" as both necessary and repulsive, successfully depicting a morally ambiguous area.

However, the book falls flat of the mark when it comes to pacing. The plot, such as it is, goes little further than the back of the book and somehow stretches across 400 pages. Character development is fleeting (the only development I noticed was when Kingsley finally realized that he had been either doing what his father said or what Cash Daddy said his whole life, which he realized almost word-for-word as I have typed and then did not reflect on that or change his behavior at all.) The setting alone was not enough to hold my interest; a huge part of the appeal of the book for me was hoping to see change & when I realized none was forthcoming, I finished the last 100 pages at a run mostly to get it finished.… (mere)

I am grateful for the authors who are willing to tackle horrifying subjects and yet do it with a deft hand. This book is intensely readable, appropriate for a teen audience, thoughtful about what Islam means to many people, even while exploring Boko Haram and the devastation they are causing. How do you do that with mass murder? With abduction and forced marriage? With the sudden blight on everyday life that may seem restricted in the West, but is supportive and loving? I don't know how she pulls all that off, but she does. Extraordinary.… (mere)

This is a wonderful book about a young girl in her early teens who became kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2013 (the year the film Frozen was released, as the book casually incorporated into the story's background information.) The first part of the book depicted the girl's life in rural Nigeria, her school, her family life, her church, her studies, her crush. The second part of the book depicted the violence and horror she went through in the Sambisa Forest after Boko Haram abducted her along with the rest the girls in her village. As the reader we witness not only her ordeal but how the girls around her react to the violence and pressure in their plight. One girl was martyred after refusing to convert from Christianity to Muslim. Another married Muslim lady was raped and died in childbirth. Yet another girl eventually ascribed fully to Boko Haram ideology and actively served to enact jihad. It's very eye-opening and makes me care more about justice and what other people are going through. I will recommend it to my children when they are older.… (mere)