ADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI
Synopsis:
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls. Some managed to escape. Many are still missing. A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband—these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. A girl who works hard in school and to help her family. A girl with a future as bright as live coals in the dark. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone—her mother, her five brothers, her best friend, her teachers—can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach. Even if the voices on Papa’s radio tell more fearful news than tales to tell by moonlight.
But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told. Still, the girl defends her
Content:
Language: Not present
Violence: The book is about Nigerian girls being kidnapped by a terrorist group and being forced to work as slaves and, later, wed the fighters. There are scenes were the character is being raped, beaten, watching people she loves and knows die (including one having their throat slashed open and another being shot), and talks of the massacres the Boko Haram carries through in the country. Some of the girls also begin to become radicalized by the group. However, due to the writing style, there is nothing explicit. Still a tough topic, but it is handled appropriately.
Sex: As mentioned earlier, the main character is raped by her husband (and tries to fight it at first). Some of the girls are also taken by the commanders during the night.
On a different note, there is talk of menstruation, breast sizes, and being married and having a family.
LGBTQ: Not present
My Review: I didn't know much about this topic before I began reading this book. Though the writing style was a little annoying at times (sometimes the chapters were only a sentence long and there were many one-line paragraphs), I still came away feeling awful for these girls and better educated on the conflict. There are some very heavy topics, but everything was handled well. You still grasp the graveness of the situation, but there was not a large amount of gory details.