The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare: 5/5.
A gripping, emotional, and surprisingly hopeful novel. The Girl with the Louding Voice deserves five stars all around!
Growing up in the village of Ikati, Nigeria, fourteen-year-old Adunni wants to get an education, so she can find her 'louding voice' and fight for the rights of girls in her country. Her mother, whose vision and love helped foster this dream and drive, has died, and her father, who does not share these same visions for Adunni's future, instead marries her off so he can collect her bride price and buy a new TV. Adunni finds herself the third wife of a much older man, in a household built on hierarchy and cruelty. When tragedy strikes, Adunni flees, and ends up being sold as a house maid to a wealthy businesswoman in the city of Lagos. For all its material comforts, this household proves to be little better than Ikati when it comes to brutality, but Adunni continues working towards her goal of finishing her education.
This novel does a phenomenal job of immediately situating the reader in the environment of the story. The writing style mimics the cadence and speech patterns of a West African adolescent girl for whom English is a second language. This style may be distracting for some, but I found it a delightful way to get inside the head of Adunni, who narrates the story. It provided an extra mechanism to understand, and therefore care about, Adunni. The occasional glimpses into daily life for Nigerian citizens, both within the rural villages and in the commercial centers, also did much to create a vibrant setting for the story. I admit that before picking this up, my knowledge of Nigerian politics and social stratas was thin; Abi Dare did much to illuminate what life looks like for Nigerians, and also to send me on a Google spree looking for historical context.
Be warned, this is not a light read. The story chronicles several horrific events, most of which happen to or around Adunni. The events which transpire will force many readers, especially those for whom rural Nigeria seems a world away, to think and grapple with the reality millions of people, especially young girls, live through. This reality and its horrors, such as human trafficking, sexual abuse, and physical abuse, are not contained within rural villages that are easily dismissed, nor have we as a global society progressed to the point where they no longer exist.
Yet for all the heaviness, the novel is hopeful as its protagonist is hopeful. The ending in particular, gives readers a sense that, as Adunni says, 'Tomorrow will be better than today.' This is a story that will have you believing the worst of the world, but also one that will have you believing the very best.
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