My first thought was "oh my goodness, this is very Nigerian."

The story follows two young girls who seemingly have something in common despite not knowing each other. Their fathers are missing and they'll do anything to reunit with their fathers.

The narrators, Precious Mustapha & Tara Tijani did such an amazing job that you'll find yourself immersed into the world. Being fantasy it reminded me of Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor as the magical element of this story is drawn from the Leopard people.

One of the main characters, Ozoemena finds herself unravelling a truth about her family's legacy with the rich magic that flows deep and seeps through every generation. She has to make a choice if she wants to become someone her father is proud of.

While Treasure finds herself making a deal with a spirit husband in exchange for saving her father. She finds herself making tough decisions and almost loses herself in the process.

Their worlds collide in a boarding school and Treasure hunts down the Leopard that attacked her while Ozoemena grows suspicious of the missing girls in their school.

I loved the audiobook so much because it was hilarious. The characters are hilarious. Especially Treasure. She reminds me of Chichi from Akata Witch so much while Ozoemena reminds me of Orlu with how very calculated she is while Treasure is very impulsive but also calculative.

My favourite statements from Treasure is "If you do me, I do you. God no go vex." And she meant it literally 😅.

Two teenage girls deal with spirits in West Africa. Ozoemena has been chosen to be the family's next leopard. The leopard spirit is stalking her, waiting for her to agree to the merge. She, on the other hand, is still angry at her father, who has left the family to find his brother's spirit, the last leopard.

Treasure's father is also gone but he has died. Before he died, Treasure and her mother lived with him in a nice house with anything they wanted. But after his death, his brothers moved in and took everything, evicting the two women. They now live in a hovel, often hungry unless Treasure is able to scrounge some food somehow. She makes a deal with a spirit to find him wives if he will introduce her to the Bone Woman. The Bone Woman can bring back her father from the dead.

The two girls hurtle down their separate paths, both trying to restore their families. But their paths will collide and only one can survive. Which will it be?

Chikodili Emelumadu was raised in Nigeria. This is her debut novel and for most readers it will be an introduction to the culture and superstitions of West Africa. I listened to this novel and the narrator's African accent transported me to the region. The girls recognize the value of an education and both long to be in a school situation. Both girls use what they know to try to patch their broken families and both soon realize that they have gotten in over their heads. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction, especially international fiction.

I am a big fan of fantasy series and this one sounded so promising. I love the concept of having a spirit animal. I also loved that the MC of this book isn’t the bravest or strongest. She struggles with social interactions and doesn’t really fit in. It made her human. That said, I felt oddly disconnected from this book. There are so many elements that I love, but tied up together, it was just missing a little something.

I got an advanced audiobook from Netgalley. I have never read anything by this author and I really appreciated the narrator of the audiobook. This was a different read for me. I don't really have much experience with many of the topics from this book, so it was interesting but I didn't always fully connect. I would be interested in reading more by this author.

This is a beautifully written and narrated audiobook. It's highly descriptive with metaphorical prose and magical realism. I appreciated following both main character's experiences through their POV's, which are both very different and very similar. I wish I had dual-read this, with the audiobook playing along with the written text. I think I could have followed the story and characters better. Overall would recommend this novel for those who love being transported to a different place. I felt I was there!

I wanted to like this book, but I just felt that it fell short of my expectations.
The two main characters had a lot of potential to be really interesting, but the dual povs and the dual timelines meant that I felt I wasn't able to connect with the characters properly and I was constantly in a state of mild confusion.
The premise of the story, especially Ozoemena becoming a Leopard, was great, but the book didn't really deliver on that excitement. I would have much preferred the story to focus on Ozoemena's journey with her Leopard and the struggles she faced with it, but every time it felt like that was going to happen, the author jumped away from it or glossed over it. This was the same with Treasure and her deal with the spirit; it had the potential but didn't live up to it.
Feeling a bit disappointed with this one.
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book!

Dazzling was imaginative and interesting. Nigerian culture and mythology is vividly explored in rich prose. I read via audiobook and this brought the story to life. The magical realism gave the author the ability to investigate themes in an almost ethereal way.
Most of all I loved the representation of women, the main characters held different lifestyles and complexities. Both felt very human.
I feel this is a story about coming of age, female liberation and family ties. Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for an Audio-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Beautiful writing, mystical stories, an overall fascinating read. I listened to the audiobook which was hard to follow at times, partly due to the accent of the narrator and partially because it was difficult to distinguish between the 2 storylines. I wouldn’t change the audiobook though. The narrators’ accents also brought so much to this story, which takes place in Nigeria. I definitely learned about the culture and folklore and really enjoyed these parts of the story. I have a feeling that if I read this again, my understanding and rating would go up more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced release copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a "MEH" for me. The pace is so slow and it took until the final 50 pages of the book for anything of interest to really start happening. I know that part of the book is meant to explore what life in Nigeria is about, but I think the same goal could have been accomplished in fewer words.

I also have to admit that the audiobook version of this novel, makes it a little hard to keep track of what is happening in the story. The dialect way the narrators tell the story is very authentic, but because of the way they read the novel, it was hard for me to understand some things.

All in all, this novel had a very interesting concept, but the execution fell a bit short for me.

Precious Mustapha and Tara Tijani did a fantastic job of narrating and were a joy to listen to. Everything flowed well and the timing was easy to listen to.

I know little to nothing about west African mythology so this was a really fun time for me. The story was so engaging and the characters were all very well fleshed out. I would absolutely read more of this!

This is a particular type of book for a particular audience, but I cannot truly pinpoint what that audience would be. This book is literary fiction with a bit of magical realism, but I didn't understand the magical realism. Is it supposed to be a metaphor? Is it meant to be taken literally? Or is it just a fantasy/mythology novel? I have realized I am a reader that likes to have a lot of answers - and this book is not one that will necessarily give them to you.

I was very intrigued in the beginning and at the end - but I almost DNFed about 70% through. I just wasn't getting it. I was very interested in seeing what happened, but I still don't get it. Also, there's a lot of bodily fluids in this that just did not work for me.

I really recommend listening to this book in audio if you're not well acquainted with different forms of Nigerian slang or pidgen. As many have said in other reviews, Treasure's narration is written in a way that I did not fully understand, though this is likely just from lack of awareness of this form of English. The audio really helped - I was able to tell when certain writing techniques were meant as emphasis as opposed to a fully different meaning.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB media for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a book with 2 of my favorite things - magical realism and a mentally visiting a new place (in this book Nigeria). This is a dual-POV novel centered around the choices we make, survival and what we are willing to give up along the way. These common themes were steeped in magical realism, folklore, and intertwined fates.

This book wasn’t a full 5 stars for me because found myself getting lost at parts. This could have been due to the colloquialisms used that were unfamiliar to me. That said, I would not want to have those removed because it would take away from the cultural aspect of the writing. This was a stunning debut and I’m curious to see what the author comes out with next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this audiobook for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I think this book will find an audience who will love and adore it, but that audience just wasn't me. The description of this book really intrigued me, especially because I have enjoyed the few magical realism books I have read so far and wanted to hear about some Nigerian mythology. However, upon reading Dazzling, the narrative mostly fell flat for me.

I was incredibly lost by the timing of everything in the story. One moment Ozoemena was at boarding school, the next she was at home arguing with her sister. It made me so unsure of when everything occurred and what the order of events in her life was. I also wish I knew how the timelines between Treasure and Ozoemena were intersecting, but the only information the reader received about this was the "Then" and "Now" at the beginning of the chapters.

I was also disappointed that so much of Ozoemena's story dealt with the ins and outs of boarding school life, rather than her journey as a Leopard. I wanted to hear more about her traveling to different worlds and looking for her tether, rather than how she felt about school.

In contrast, I greatly enjoyed Treasure's story, and I was able to follow her narrative with much more ease and enjoyment than I was with Ozoemena's.

All this being said, the writing style was beautiful, and I think that plenty of other readers will not have the same hangups about the timeline or the everyday details that I did.

The narration was also STELLAR. I enjoyed that both girls had distinct voices and that the narrators (Precious Mustapha and Tara Tijani) put so much emotion into each of their narratives. I would love to listen to more books narrated by these women!

Dual POVs and multiple time lines weave together in a fantastical novel settled in reality. In Dazzling, one young girl struggles with fitting in at boarding school while also trying to control the leopard within her. Another girl will do anything to get her father back, even if it means making a deal with an untrustworthy spirit. As the spirit’s request increase in cruelty and classmates at boarding school start to disappear, both girls are pushed to their limit trying to get what they want out of life.

Overall, this is a story of girlhood and all it’s horrors. Uncaring and absent parents dealing with their own grief, corrupt school systems, and bullying are just the beginning of the issues young girls must face as they are plunged into adulthood too early. Although there are fanatical elements of this novel, including spirits and vengeance seeking legacies, all of the dangers are real or feel real to these girls. And even though they are not altogether blameless after making their own choices, I was rooting for both girls and hoping they were able to become free in their own ways.

There is a lot of back and forth between the timelines and POVs, so I did get turned around a bit toward the beginning trying to keep track of exchange story line and how they came together. But I enjoyed the detailed and vivid descriptions, and thought the story was really well put together overall. Plus I love the narrators on the audio book version!

This is so beautiful! I was not even snacking while listening because I was afraid to miss a single word, and trust me - you do not want to miss anything. Everything means something in this one.
The narration was wonderful but I loved the story even more. It was just perfection.

I loved this book, oh! As someone who lived on the Nigerian border of Cameroon for several years, this audiobook took me straight back into west/central African culture. This is a Nigerian folklore-inspired fantasy story. It is in incredibly unique book that really stands out from the rest of the fantasy YA shelf right now.

I loved the use of Pigin English in much of the dialog and the switch between languages and grammar depending on POV and who the characters were interacting with. The use of language in this story made it feel so real, like I was right there in the market with Treasure or in class with Ozoemena. Dazzling is such an apt title, because I was dazzled by the story.

The narrators were fantastic and do a great job of bringing the characters to life. They do have Nigerian accents and with the use of Pigin, I think this could be hard to understand in audiobook format for individuals unfamiliar with that accent and language.

Thank you to RB Media, Recorded Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this audiobook!

the native Nigerian language and colloquialisms i loved about this one. i listene4d to this audiobook of this story. the narration was good. first read by the author and hope to read more.

3.5 rounded up for the audio version in particular, as the narrators really help bring the story to life. Steeped in Nigerian lore and magic, it really does dazzle, dancing across the lines of mundane and magical troubles and highlighting social issues as it does.

The audiobook really shines, in my opinion, having two narrators who can really embody the tone and emotion behind Ozoemena and Treasure's choices and situations and how everything unfolds from the desire for something that should be simply - a place to belong, familiar and secure. Treasure's chapters in particular, being in the first person and utilizing a child's view and thoughts and patter, really benefit from the talent of her narrator. I suspect I would have had a harder time connecting with her and her chapters if I had just been reading.

The use of the two narrators and two timelines weaves the girls' stories together in a way that all but rushes towards the end after a first third that is mostly setting the scene for everything that will happen. As more and more comes together, I found it hard to put it down, needing to see how everything resolves itself.

Let me start off with a thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. I really appreciated it. The narration was beautiful and the story was interesting. I unfortunately didn't care for it.

This was an incredibly unique genre-defying, feminist coming of age debut story featuring two Nigerian teen girls who attend a private boarding school and have to balance their own dreams with a destiny to fulfill their inner calling. Steeped in West African mythology, this was good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Abi Dare or Eloghosa Osunde. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!