The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré–384 pages
ARC from Edelweiss and Dutton in exchange for an honest review
Book Blurb:
Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a “louding voice”–the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni’s father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir.
When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing.
But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can–in a whisper, in song, in broken English–until she is heard.
My Review: 5 stars
The Girl With the Louding Voice was a fabulous look into the soul of young girl, Adunni, and her will to become educated after she is sold into servitude. There is so much about this story to love. First and foremost, Adunni is a character that will stay with you for a long time. Her ability to compartmentalize her sadness and grief allowed her to stay positive when all the odds were stacked against her. She stole my heart!
The author managed to weave issues regarding women’s rights, social class, family, abuse, mother/daughter relationships, enslavement and education into this beautifully told story. Told from Adnunni’s POV, the writing is as she knows it. The meanings are clear but often the tenses and definitions are skewed. If you’ve read These is my Words by Nancy E. Turner, you’ll know what I mean. As the character learns more, her writing improves.
Although this book has many antagonists, there are certainly plenty of characters that offer some light to the story. Those crumbs of grace continue to carry this young girl through darker times. As she grows, so does her awareness of what true love looks like, that money doesn’t guarantee happiness and that education is the greatest gift. I really enjoyed the facts about Nigeria that were peppered throughout the narrative. I learned as Adunni learned; it was a win -win. I’m shocked that this is Daré’s debut novel. It was polished and compelling. Absolutely perfect for book clubs!
Quotes I liked:
I don’t just want to be having any kind of voice, I want a louding voice.”
“Honest, honest, English is just a language of confusions.”
“I want to ask, to scream, why are the women in Nigeria seem to be suffering for everything more than the men?”
“Not his-story. My own will be called her-story.
“I feel a free that I didn’t feel in long time and when I smile, it climb from inside my stomach and spread itself on my teeths.”
“Death can take form of anything. It clever like that.”
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