Reviews

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

tolabassey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ahinks's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition

4.0

Beautiful piece up there with Things Fall Apart. 4 brothers in Nigeria where one is told something that drives them all apart in different directions. Breaks your heart throughout, but a thoughtful portrait on growing up.

lunesoleilciel's review against another edition

5.0

Loved the many minute details that reminded me of my youth and phrases my parents, relatives or their friends would say or do. Read it via audiobook and would highly recommend - he did great with the different languages and accents and provided nice pauses or changes in tone to denote changes in time.

thekatiefu's review against another edition

4.0

This was a hard one…but I’m glad I read it. So much tragedy in one family, it was like I was afraid to know what would come next. Yet somehow, there is beauty and love in the tragedy, and, unbelievably, hope for the future.

watsonnotholmes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.25

mmesoma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Incest, Rape, Suicide, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Physical abuse

serinde4books's review against another edition

2.0

This was a book I received in one of my Book Riot boxes. The description is "In a Nigerian town in the mid 1990's, four brothers encounter a madman whose mystic prophecy of violence threatens the core of their close-knit family. Told from the point of view of nine year old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, The Fisherman is the Cain and Abel-esque story of an unforgettable childhood in 1990's Nigeria, in the small town of Akure. When their strict father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his extended absence to skip school and go fishing. At the ominous, forbidden nearby river, they meet a dangerous local madman who persuades the oldest of the boys that he is destined to be killed by one of his siblings. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact-both tragic and redemptive-will transcend the lives and imaginations of its characters and its readers. Dazzling and viscerally powerful, The Fishermen never leaves Akure but the story it tells has enormous universal appeal. Seen through the prism of one family's destiny, this is an essential novel about Africa with all of its contradictions-economic, political, and religious-and the epic beauty of its own culture."
This book has a ton of great reviews about how magical the writing was and how profound the story was. I found it depressing. Their lives and what happened to the narrator at the age of 10 was depressing and awful. I did not find it magical or enthralling. I was not drawn to the characters or the story, I found myself forcing myself to finish it, telling myself that in the next chapter it would get better. It didn't. Obioma's writing was great, he was smooth and the story moved at a nice pace. I just wasn't invested in the story. I think I may have been in the wrong mood for the book, I wanted something with a happy ending and I didn't get it with this book.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

nabend23's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

3.5

ayeesharbrts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75