Reviews

An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie

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bukolayemi's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A beautifully written novel about love, faith and community.

Set in Bristol, this novel follows a young Sayon Hughes, who lives in The Ends and is fully involved in the drugs and gang lifestyle, it has in fact been part of his family for generations.

Shona is a young friend of Sayon’s, a girl from a very different, her father is a pastor and she is a much loved only child from a loving stable family.

We read about Sayon’s struggle to get out of The Ends, will Shona be his salvation?

I love the exploration of religion, Christianity and Islam in this book. Loved the Jamaican proverbs and Bible verses at the start of each chapter.

The characters, both the main ones and minor ones, were so well developed and the reader gets to understand the reasons they make the choices they do whether you agree with them or not. Sayon’s parents though? I have no words!

This is a really enjoyable read and would make a great book club read.

beccajdb's review against another edition

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Everyone is amazed by the talent of this 23-year-old writer (according to the praise on the covers). I’m sure he will be a great writer, but this is a terrible mishmash of street slang and learnt lyrical prose - things are always ‘upon’ not ‘on’, ‘atop’, ‘ for’ not ‘ because’. Too much pretentious trying to sound like a writer made it unreadable for me.