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A review by ultimatekate
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
5.0
Wow.
These short stories, all of which feature children as the main character (and often narrator), highlight the unrest in places like Nigeria, Rwanda, and Kenya. The stories cover a range of topics: religion, civil unrest, poverty, and child slavery.
This book was eye-opening for me in a number of ways. I knew that people in certain countries were brain-washed to, say, hate another religion, but I never realized how deep this was until reading this book. Also, I think that by making the children the focus of the stories, the problems that the people of this continent face are magnified tenfold. It's one thing to hear about a person being killed, but it's quite another for that person to be a child.
Just a note: some of these short stories are long. "Luxurious Hearses", for instance, is over 130 pages. Coincidentally, it was my favorite of the stories, but really, all of them are well-written, with developed, believable characters.
These short stories, all of which feature children as the main character (and often narrator), highlight the unrest in places like Nigeria, Rwanda, and Kenya. The stories cover a range of topics: religion, civil unrest, poverty, and child slavery.
This book was eye-opening for me in a number of ways. I knew that people in certain countries were brain-washed to, say, hate another religion, but I never realized how deep this was until reading this book. Also, I think that by making the children the focus of the stories, the problems that the people of this continent face are magnified tenfold. It's one thing to hear about a person being killed, but it's quite another for that person to be a child.
Just a note: some of these short stories are long. "Luxurious Hearses", for instance, is over 130 pages. Coincidentally, it was my favorite of the stories, but really, all of them are well-written, with developed, believable characters.