A review by emilyusuallyreading
City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson
5.0
What I Liked
It is clear that Anderson has deep knowledge of the culture and rich setting of Kenya and East and Central Africa. Although she is American, her bio says that she has spent 10 years living in Africa, and this shows through her writing.
My favorite part about City of Saints & Thieves is that it portrays each character as first and foremost a real person, and their nationality or color second... or even third on a list of priorities. Most books with settings in Africa make the main African characters as "African" as they possibly can, which creates this image of them as "other" to an American or Western reader. Tina and Boyboy and Kiki and even Bug Eye and Mr. Omoko are African, but most of the time, I was picturing them as normal people that could live anywhere. The setting just happened to be within the clamor and rich culture of East Africa.
I loved the settings. The ugali and orange Fanta and reporters eating chicken down to the glistening bone. Instead of focusing on poverty, it was just there, not to be pitied, not to be weighing down the novel. It was just a part of life.
A murder mystery, teenage thief, action novel that takes place in East Africa and is for the most part culturally accurate? Sure, I'll take that any day!
The ending floored me too. So worth the read.
What I Didn't Like
As someone who spends a lot of time either in East Africa, particularly Kenya with a bit of Tanzania, or around East African people, I can say with certainty that a flamboyantly gay secondary character would not exist in the fictional equivalent of Kibera slums. I get that this is a YA novel meant for an American audience, but to be authentic, there would NOT be a boy walking around with feminine perfume, painted nails, etc. in any East African city I have ever visited. Anderson touches briefly on persecution of Boyboy for being homosexual, but that would be an understatement. LGBT people are currently still stoned or completely excommunicated from communities in Kenya. It's just not an accepted part of society, whatsoever, so it was distracting that there was a main character that just wouldn't actually work in this setting. This wasn't enough for me to remove a star from my review, because I loved City of Saints & Thieves, but Boyboy being so "out" was distracting to me.
It is clear that Anderson has deep knowledge of the culture and rich setting of Kenya and East and Central Africa. Although she is American, her bio says that she has spent 10 years living in Africa, and this shows through her writing.
My favorite part about City of Saints & Thieves is that it portrays each character as first and foremost a real person, and their nationality or color second... or even third on a list of priorities. Most books with settings in Africa make the main African characters as "African" as they possibly can, which creates this image of them as "other" to an American or Western reader. Tina and Boyboy and Kiki and even Bug Eye and Mr. Omoko are African, but most of the time, I was picturing them as normal people that could live anywhere. The setting just happened to be within the clamor and rich culture of East Africa.
I loved the settings. The ugali and orange Fanta and reporters eating chicken down to the glistening bone. Instead of focusing on poverty, it was just there, not to be pitied, not to be weighing down the novel. It was just a part of life.
A murder mystery, teenage thief, action novel that takes place in East Africa and is for the most part culturally accurate? Sure, I'll take that any day!
The ending floored me too. So worth the read.
What I Didn't Like
As someone who spends a lot of time either in East Africa, particularly Kenya with a bit of Tanzania, or around East African people, I can say with certainty that a flamboyantly gay secondary character would not exist in the fictional equivalent of Kibera slums. I get that this is a YA novel meant for an American audience, but to be authentic, there would NOT be a boy walking around with feminine perfume, painted nails, etc. in any East African city I have ever visited. Anderson touches briefly on persecution of Boyboy for being homosexual, but that would be an understatement. LGBT people are currently still stoned or completely excommunicated from communities in Kenya. It's just not an accepted part of society, whatsoever, so it was distracting that there was a main character that just wouldn't actually work in this setting. This wasn't enough for me to remove a star from my review, because I loved City of Saints & Thieves, but Boyboy being so "out" was distracting to me.