Description
I don’t just want to be having any kind voice . . .
I want a louding voice.
At fourteen, Adunni dreams of getting an education and giving her family a more comfortable home in her small Nigerian village. Instead, Adunni’s father sells her off to become the third wife of an old man. When tragedy strikes in her new home, Adunni flees to the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where she becomes a house-girl to the cruel Big Madam, and prey to Big Madam’s husband. But despite her situation continuously going from bad to worse, Adunni refuses to let herself be silenced. And one day, someone hears her.
About the author
Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in the UK for over 18 years. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University. Keen to improve her writing, Abi completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London, achieving a Distinction. Her novel, THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE won The Bath Novel Award in 2018 and was selected as a finalist in The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition in 2018. Abi lives in Essex with her husband and two children.
My thoughts
Abi Daré has created the most distinctive voice for Adunni, it was so compelling I found myself totally immersed, from start to end! There’s no way on earth any human with feelings wouldn’t want to wrap Adunni up and take her away from all the bad.
Her pain was immense and her ambitions, completely skewered to the point of being metaphorically strangled. The misogyny is on another level; firstly with her father selling her, then as the third bride of an old man. I smelt the sweat, blood and tears. Just when I hoped things would get better, they got worse; much worse. But there is more to the story. It centres around justice and determination, and it will definitely have you hurrying along to find out how it all ends.
I really enjoyed that it was set in Nigeria. The descriptions of the houses and the landscape really gave me something wonderful to explore in this book. I loved the market chapter too. As for the supporting characters, Tia and Kofi were inspiring, showing that a little human kindness can go a long way.
Adunni’s character came across as brilliantly authentic and I’m still sad at a lot of the incidents in this story but I know this level of violence is rife in the world. I know I’ve said it before, but these stories need to be told and they need to be heard. Maybe we all need to take something from Adunni’s story and use our own louding voices. In fact, no, there’s no maybe about it, we should use our voices to call out abuse, exploitation, suffering, and not just our own. There are too many people suffering in the world. If you’re not suffering, someone else is. Take inspiration from this book and speak for them.
What more can I say? I loved this book so much. You have to read it now!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07SD4XJDQ/
Thanks for reading!
Why not check out one of my other reviews? Maybe you’ll find your perfect read.
Dead Cold by Jane Heafield – review. https://griffbuck.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/dead-cold-by-jane-heafield-review/
Carla Kovach – author of Amazon and iBooks bestselling DI Gina Harte crime series.