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A review by rainmisoa
The Kaya Girl by Mamle Wolo
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
I had a bit of a hard time enjoying this book. It was extremely slow and mundane in parts. I was very interested in learning about Ghanaian culture and language and when the book focuses on those aspects, I was enjoying the book tremendously. However, when it focused on archaic messages, that's when it would lose me as the reader.
I felt like this book kept encouraging that women should only get married and have babies. It was such a backwards way to think. I do like that, towards the end, Faiza was challenging those ideals by getting an education and working on herself first. But throughout the majority of the book, no one really questioned the sexism of the people around them. It was just expected. And seeing as how this takes place in the modern day, I was hoping that the sexism would have been challenged more.
I wasn't too fond of any of the characters besides Faiza. Abena was too gullible for my liking and considering she had access to knowledge, I felt like she had no excuse for some of her actions. We're supposed to like Lydia, Abena's aunt, but I just thought she was insufferable. I didn't like how prejudice she was towards anyone who wasn't rich and even at the end, I just felt like she was being fake towards Faiza. I could have also done without the "boy obsession" that kept happening throughout the whole book.
I do think this book is fascinating in showing you the various languages spoken in Ghana and the culture there... but the slow pacing and some of the archaic messages just made me not enjoy it as much as I could have. I recommend it to those of you who want to read a little more about Ghana. The book definitely gets better towards the end.
I felt like this book kept encouraging that women should only get married and have babies. It was such a backwards way to think. I do like that, towards the end, Faiza was challenging those ideals by getting an education and working on herself first. But throughout the majority of the book, no one really questioned the sexism of the people around them. It was just expected. And seeing as how this takes place in the modern day, I was hoping that the sexism would have been challenged more.
I wasn't too fond of any of the characters besides Faiza. Abena was too gullible for my liking and considering she had access to knowledge, I felt like she had no excuse for some of her actions. We're supposed to like Lydia, Abena's aunt, but I just thought she was insufferable. I didn't like how prejudice she was towards anyone who wasn't rich and even at the end, I just felt like she was being fake towards Faiza. I could have also done without the "boy obsession" that kept happening throughout the whole book.
I do think this book is fascinating in showing you the various languages spoken in Ghana and the culture there... but the slow pacing and some of the archaic messages just made me not enjoy it as much as I could have. I recommend it to those of you who want to read a little more about Ghana. The book definitely gets better towards the end.