As a Nigerian Igbo immigrant, I completely understood the vision for the book and its origins. I could totally see why Fidelis was triggered by the captured girls and taken back to the Biafran war where he lost his sister but I think what didn't work for me was the execution.

The book was heavy and not just with the subject matter. Like most african authors, the words weren't allowed to breathe and the words were heavy handed. There were so many storylines that you didn't know which one to invest in and it didn't help that the most of the storylines ended up nowhere. Yes, the anchor was the Enwerike family but it was all over the place. I never got closure for Amarachi and Maksym, Pastor John and Fidelis coming to his senses seemed to come out of nowhere. It was hard to follow what was real or a hallucination so in the beginning when Fidelis sleep walks I didn't realize it was a real time occurence. Lastly, for someone obsessed with the culture and Biafra, it was very surprising that the Enwerike kids couldn't speak the language.

Like I mentioned before, I understood what the vision was and usually I enjoy an intergenerational book but this didn't work for me.

The summary of this book sounded really interesting but the writing style and execution were just not for me . I got about 15% in and decided to give it up as I was just not enjoying myself

This book has a fascinating premise, but the execution is a bit of a letdown. A Nigerian family has settled in Orlando, but when over two hundred schoolgirls in Nigeria are kidnapped by terrorists, the patriarch of the family, Fidelis, experiences a PTSD resurgence-he fought in the Nigerian Civil War-and locks his 16-year-old daughter, Amara, in her bedroom indefinitely. Fidelis' younger sister, Ugochi, went missing during the civil war and was never found, and Fidelis believes history is repeating itself and he must protect his daughter.

This book has a lot of interesting and impactful things to say about generational trauma, cultural displacement, the insane, illogical, and interlocking systems of misogyny that impact both daughters and sons, and classism and racism and their reverberating effects. The family dynamics feel real and lived-in, and the characters are vivid. But this book just had way too many side-plots going on, and the emotional resolution wasn't there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books/Algonquin Young Readers for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Well, I’ll start off by saying I love a good contemporary African novel and a multigenerational one at that. I really liked the way the story flowed and the style of story telling made it a captivating read. The characters were easy to connect with and I was honestly never bored once while reading it. That being said, not too much stood out to me, but I did enjoy overall. Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Solid multigenerational family story with war and immigration. The characters are thoroughly developed and a very good read. I loved the story overall.

After hearing the news of kidnapped girls in his homeland, a veteran of the Biafran war living in Florida locks his own daughter in her room, sending his family into a crisis.

this was a pretty good book. The themes of generational trauma, survivors guilt, and shame were prevalent. I liked the story and the writing style. It did have some slow parts in the book, a few actually, but overall I did enjoy this book. It was not something I normally would read so I did enjoy it!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!