amymo73's review against another edition
4.0
Snowstorm plus the Buffalo & Erie County Library’s ebook loan program made for a quiet reading Christmas weekend. I probably could have read this in one day. It was so good. It was compelling.
I really appreciated the story telling and the pace of the writing. I cannot imagine the horrors of this war in Nigeria. More than that, I never gave thought to what happened when the girls came home. How going home wasn’t always possible or at least staying at home.
I really appreciated the story telling and the pace of the writing. I cannot imagine the horrors of this war in Nigeria. More than that, I never gave thought to what happened when the girls came home. How going home wasn’t always possible or at least staying at home.
suehepworth's review against another edition
1.0
Didn't like the style, lots of disjointed accounts.girl kidnapped by boko haram. survived and eventually lived happily with baby. learnt a lot about Nigeria and boko haram. Would not recommend. Recommended by The Times stop
naomimetz96's review against another edition
2.0
I have loved Edna O’Brien’s writing in the pay but this book just didn’t work for me. Something felt off about an 80+ year old Irish woman writing about the experience of a child kidnapped by Boko Haram. To be fair, she did quite a bit of research and told the story well, but I just felt a disconnect between her writing and the actual experience of this girl.
As someone who loves sad and sometimes very dark books I did feel like there were parts of this novel that were horrifying just to be horrifying. But also, maybe that was the point?
Anyway, this book was clearly not for me but I’d be very curious to see what someone else that has read it thought. Anyone who read this and loved it?
#DNF
As someone who loves sad and sometimes very dark books I did feel like there were parts of this novel that were horrifying just to be horrifying. But also, maybe that was the point?
Anyway, this book was clearly not for me but I’d be very curious to see what someone else that has read it thought. Anyone who read this and loved it?
#DNF
paigelewis's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
4.0
This book was a brutal and difficult read but it was almost impossible to put down. Giving it a 4 instead of something g higher simply for the fact that I know it’s something I’ll never pick up again.
andrew_russell's review against another edition
3.0
Girl by Edna O'Brien is the tale of Maryam, a girl who has been kidnapped by the extremist terrorist organisation Boko Harum from the Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria in April 2014.
Given the subject matter, it comes as no surprise that there are unflinching accounts of horrific acts and atrocities which were carried out and which Maryam often experienced firsthand but also on occasion, heard related by other characters in the novel. This lends itself to a dramatic and emotionally manipulative style of writing, which often proves successful in driving home just what an ordeal the kidnap experience must have been for those who went through it.
As the novel is written as a first person account, we experience the double-edged sword that is on the one hand, greater immediacy and intimacy with those events which are experienced by Maryam and yet on the other hand, a curious lack of connectivity with her feelings, emotions and any long term effects such events may have had on her. This is a real shame as the rawness at the heart of the central topic lends itself, with relatively little effort, to driving home these aspects to the reader.
What we get instead is events; horrific events, eye-opening events and even on at least one occasion, a genuine 'bring a tear to a glass eye' event. These are for the most part, expressed in eloquent and vivid prose and yet they lack something and the 'something' is characterisation. We never really get under the skin of Maryam, to understand her hopes, frustrations, fears, wants and ambitions. There is only ever the attempt to achieve this through the lens of the events which take place around her. In spite of the first person narrative and it's immediacy, we soon begin to feel more and more like a spectator rather than some sort of metaphysical being, experiencing such happenings alongside the main character.
It's important to underscore this deficiency only because, were it not present, this novel could really have been elevated to a completely different level from that at which it sits. In spite of this however, there is more to like about Girl than dislike. Colourful, striking prose is the most obvious one but there are several others also. Themes such as the oppression of females, the threat of extremism on a global scale but particularly for those who live under less economically and politically sound regimes, the plight of those in developing countries which possess less robust human rights protection than that taken for granted by the inhabitants of the Western World and the ability of under-privileged individuals to display remarkable tenacity and courage in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances almost entirely beyond their control, are all put out there by O'Brien.
Girl is far from being a 'bad' book. It's just that given the somewhat two-dimensional characterisations, it unlikely to resonate down through the ages, or indeed to even be remembered with any clear sense of detail a year on from putting it down.
Given the subject matter, it comes as no surprise that there are unflinching accounts of horrific acts and atrocities which were carried out and which Maryam often experienced firsthand but also on occasion, heard related by other characters in the novel. This lends itself to a dramatic and emotionally manipulative style of writing, which often proves successful in driving home just what an ordeal the kidnap experience must have been for those who went through it.
As the novel is written as a first person account, we experience the double-edged sword that is on the one hand, greater immediacy and intimacy with those events which are experienced by Maryam and yet on the other hand, a curious lack of connectivity with her feelings, emotions and any long term effects such events may have had on her. This is a real shame as the rawness at the heart of the central topic lends itself, with relatively little effort, to driving home these aspects to the reader.
What we get instead is events; horrific events, eye-opening events and even on at least one occasion, a genuine 'bring a tear to a glass eye' event. These are for the most part, expressed in eloquent and vivid prose and yet they lack something and the 'something' is characterisation. We never really get under the skin of Maryam, to understand her hopes, frustrations, fears, wants and ambitions. There is only ever the attempt to achieve this through the lens of the events which take place around her. In spite of the first person narrative and it's immediacy, we soon begin to feel more and more like a spectator rather than some sort of metaphysical being, experiencing such happenings alongside the main character.
It's important to underscore this deficiency only because, were it not present, this novel could really have been elevated to a completely different level from that at which it sits. In spite of this however, there is more to like about Girl than dislike. Colourful, striking prose is the most obvious one but there are several others also. Themes such as the oppression of females, the threat of extremism on a global scale but particularly for those who live under less economically and politically sound regimes, the plight of those in developing countries which possess less robust human rights protection than that taken for granted by the inhabitants of the Western World and the ability of under-privileged individuals to display remarkable tenacity and courage in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances almost entirely beyond their control, are all put out there by O'Brien.
Girl is far from being a 'bad' book. It's just that given the somewhat two-dimensional characterisations, it unlikely to resonate down through the ages, or indeed to even be remembered with any clear sense of detail a year on from putting it down.
apagefromherbook's review against another edition
3.0
Sad and triggering account of a girl who gets abducted by Boko Haram. The story should be acknowledged for it is an important one, but the story telling lacks rapture. I had a hard time enjoying the story because of the way it was told. There were many long sentences that felt like the story was being dragged on. The sentences had a similar feel to a long list, which slowed down my reading and engagement with the text. At the same time I do feel it made the story more real for the protagonist, having the details of her experience brought to life in their exactness. It made the account more personal for sure, for the reader as well. I will add that the choice of words used the describe events and situations made the writing interesting and metaphorical. At times you have to read beyond the words to make sense of what is even going on. It is this poetic tone that dominates the text but also diminishes it, bringing it down to just words taking up space, rather than telling a story that we can properly make sense of.
sammaree's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
misaki91's review against another edition
4.0
I liked it, I read it in like two sittings. I was expecting something more I think, maybe it didn't touch me to the point I would be devastated. It's a sad world we live into. Trapped and driven by religion in any kind of oppression
laz92's review against another edition
3.0
The book reads as a powerful narrative because, factually, the events are horrendous. But I lost interest the more it went on; it felt empty to me because the author is neither Nigerian nor someone closely associated with the Boko Haram situation (a victim/aid worker/family member), and in my opinion does not have the right or the authority to write as though she was.
I agree with the reviews that this should have been a piece of longform non-fiction. Regardless of how well O'Brien did her homework, I don't think there's any number of former victims she could speak to that would justify her writing from the perspective of one of these women. How can a white Irish woman possibly understand that cultural divide and accurately portray the feeling and stigma in a first person fictitious narrative, when the culture is not her own? And surely there are Nigerian authors with their own stories to tell about these terrible events that could have been platformed instead/alongside a non fiction piece. The book felt very derivative and hollow in my opinion.
I agree with the reviews that this should have been a piece of longform non-fiction. Regardless of how well O'Brien did her homework, I don't think there's any number of former victims she could speak to that would justify her writing from the perspective of one of these women. How can a white Irish woman possibly understand that cultural divide and accurately portray the feeling and stigma in a first person fictitious narrative, when the culture is not her own? And surely there are Nigerian authors with their own stories to tell about these terrible events that could have been platformed instead/alongside a non fiction piece. The book felt very derivative and hollow in my opinion.
elizabethod's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0