September 2021 – The Readers Hut

Thank you to everyone who kept telling me to read this book, I love you all!

I haven’t spent a whole day reading and laying about in a while, I missed that feeling. Adulting is the ghetto.

I did this today and this book made it way worth it.

This is the most beautiful story I have read this year, my whole heart!🥺 This book broke me, I cried, as usual, I don’t know how to completely express how I feel, just need you to get a copy and read it.

My favourite feature of this story was its premise in Rivers State, my state of origin. We see most books from Lagos so this was a welcomed change, I loved that I could relax into the pages and feel like I’m home. I honestly thought this story was a product of a real-life experience.

This book was filled with humour, love, friendship and its loss, family, politics, militancy, kidnapping, freedom fighters, bad governance, godfatherism and any other themes. A sad, haunting and thrilling read.

I loved a lot of names used in this book. After Yoruba names, Rivers names have always been so awesome to me; Doye Koko😊, I loved this man, Damiete, Kaniye, Dise, such beautiful names.

This book is a story of four friends born into different circumstances; Doye Koko ‘the most intelligent with a deadbeat dad’, Kaniye ‘the bastard son of Sir James’, Tubo ‘the orphan’ and Amaibi ‘the catechists son’ born in the town of Asiama, Rivers State.

These four grow up, become different persons and have to decide what life they want to live. Ideologies change, life happens and everyone reaps a bit of reward for the life they choose. They realise the easy camaraderie and brotherhood they share has been mauled by life.

The characters were relatable, I loved all the major characters except Tubo, such a greedy wuss, I wondered how he was still friends with Amaibi and Kaniye, I would have kicked him out of my life a long time ago. He reminds me of some of the ‘Port-Harcourt boys I have met/encountered, always so loud but when the chips are down they would never act, so irritating.

I kinda saw Doye’s reasons for all he did, a warped thought process but it’s a cutthroat world out there and look what happened to him and his family. He became too proud though I knew something was coming.

Kaniye and Sir James had the weirdest family bond, I had a growing fondness for Sir James despite everything and I loved how Kaniye always tried to rile him up.

The love story between Kaniye and Deola was so sweet and natural. I could relate to Deola a lot. The struggle to find a spouse amid family and personal preferences can be so stressful. I loved how Chimeka described her as a devout Christian but defying societal/nigerian norms of how a Christian woman should be.

Amaibi’s life and reverence to his dad reminds me of my Dad and I, although Amaibi was quite an extremist. Dise! So strong, such a beautiful character!

‘God’ was such a strong presence in this book, still valid to say that Nigerians are so extra about Christianity but commit the worst sins.

This story was about the people of Asiama and their struggle to survive in the presence of oil companies, greedy politicians and chiefs and the oil boom in the Niger Delta from oil spills to bunkering. It points out all the flaws in our country, the role of the Niger Deltans during the era of militancy, the fight for support and livelihood of oil company host communities and finally the presence of godfatherism and corruption in Nigeria.

I got pissed a lot in the course of reading and it’s so sad to see that yes militancy has stopped but things are still bad and we are in 2021. Armies still shoot civilians carelessly, oil bunkering is still there, we in Port-Harcourt are slowly dying, the air is polluted. Nigerian government always frustrating those who ask them to do their jobs, everything is still the same.

This may have been fiction but it is still our reality.

Finally, this was book was all shades of amazingness, you can pick it up at the rate of 3,000 to 3,500 in Nigeria from Bookmarket NG and other book stores.

Favourite parts of the book: