DAZZLING by Chikodili Emelumadu is read by Precious Mustapha & Tara Tijani and couldn't have been better titled!

This is a magical West African myth retelling that might be even more impressive if I knew the original tale, but even lacking that cultural knowledge, I was still transfixed by this story. Hearing the voices of the two girls' perspectives as they come to terms with their destiny's made this story feel way more authentic than my own imagination could conjure. The accents were heavy and real and made me feel like I was back in West Africa listening to this story. I fell into it with only a wish for the native Jolof rice and fresh mango.

Treasure is one of the girls who has lost her father and when a strange man who enters the village with a promise to help her, she puts aside her trepidation about his levitation to get what she wants. Ozoemena is another young girl who feels an itch one day in her back that portends a link to a leopard magic that is usually passed down through the male lines. She also must decide where her legacy will take her and what she really wants. Both these girls have a wildness that will bring them together, but can they both survive it?

I won't even pretend that I caught everything in this story. It was a dazzling story and full of cultural references that likely were lost on me, but I didn't feel lost at all. In fact, I felt like I got to sit and be immersed in a new folklore that was stunning. I do feel like it was fantastic to hear the audio, but I do think it would be lovely to have the print (or digital) book to see the words as well. I may have to consider a reread with both!

Thank you so much @netgalley & @recordedbooks for this audiobook and letting me share my thoughts! It is a whirlwind of a story that is out today, December 5th! For those looking to be immersed in a new world of magic and family drama of young African girls finding their strengths, grab this up!

I really wanted to love this (I loved Girl with the Louding Voice’) but unfortunately it didn’t quite work for me. I’m sure a lot of people will love it, so don’t be discouraged by me if you’re considering trying it!

There were some good things:
- Charming ten year old narrators
- A peak into a different culture
- Nigerian folklore reimagined
- Magical realism

I just didn’t find the story gripped me. The way the realistic bits weaved together with the spirit world wasn’t my thing and I would have preferred if, like ‘Girl with the Louding Voice,’ it stuck to just this world and left the spirits out of it. My attention always wavered during the spirit bits.

There’s also a decent amount of very graphic horror in this, which I wasn’t prepared for. There are a lot of body fluids where they don’t belong and overall more gross-out effect than I expected (to be fair, I hadn't expected any body horror).

Still, what I disliked had more to do with my specific taste than it did with the quality of the narrative, so I encourage fans of magical realism, horror, and folklore to check this out.

Thanks, NetGalley and Overlook Press, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was in a word, dazzling. The writing was riveting! I haven’t read much in the way of African mythology, so this was a total delight.

In this, we follow Treasure and Ozoemena, two girls who have lost their fathers, on a path destined to collide.

Treasure has lost her father and she and her mother are just trying to scrape by. She meets a very formidable man, a spirit who tells her he can reunite her with her father, in exchange for something she doesn’t want to do. How far will she go?

Ozoemena has just joined a new school and she is inundated with this sensation following her around. All she wants is to fit in but something greater is upon her, if she wants it or not.

I opted for the audiobook and I HIGHLY recommend it because the narrators do a beautiful job capturing the dark atmosphere and magical energy of this book.

This is a very empowering read, filled with triumphs and heartache simultaneously. And it was stunning!