You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

enobong's reviews
479 reviews

Home by Toni Morrison

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Go to review page

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.0

What Napoleon Could Not Do by D.K. Nnuro

Go to review page

emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised Edition: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster

Go to review page

funny informative fast-paced

4.0

A great read for anyone looking to dive deeper in their reading or study of literature.
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

Go to review page

Did not finish book.
This is a great book and very well written I just wasn’t in the right season to finish this. As you can probably guess from the blurb, it’s filled with a lot of trauma and I’m taking a break from trauma writing. Especially when it unending. So if you’re like me, try this book in another season
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Go to review page

2.0

If you’ve never reads Neil Gaiman novel before, maybe don’t make this your first one 😅

I’ve wanted to read Coraline and Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman for a while now but this year I basically only have time to listen to audiobooks and I sneak in a few physical books when I’m able so I searched my local library to see which Neil Gaiman audiobooks they had available and all they had was American Gods (I was put on the waitlist for Coraline).

I was intrigued by the premise. Every immigration that has landed on American has brought with them their own gods from their native lands. But America is no place for gods. It’s a land of skepticism and unbelief and the gods are suffering and slowly dying out. The new gods do not believe there is enough space for the old and so a battle is waged. At the middle of all this turmoil is Shadow, an ex-convict who loses his wife the day he is set to be released and becomes the errand boy of a Mr Wednesday aka Odin. Shadow enters into a strange, wonderful, deceptive world of mythology and finds himself embroiled in the battle for America’s soul.

I enjoy a good thriller, I love mythology, and you can’t go wrong with a good hero story… or so I thought. I found myself spending too much time trying to figure out which gods from which mythological pantheons were being featured and not enough time actually caring about the characters. I also couldn’t help feeling like I’d read a much better version of this story… it’s a called THE STAND by Stephen King. Now that one should read.

Then there were things that just didn’t track such as Anansi having a Caribbean accent when he’s a west African god, the Queen of Sheba being blonde when she’s either Arab or Ethiopian and just the overall writing of women in general.

What I thought worked well is that as a Brit, Gaiman was able to bring an outside view of what the rest of the world sees about America. Sometimes Americans are too entrenched in the cult of America to be able to write an honest viewpoint and that worked well here.

Final verdict: it’s not worth your time.
No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

Go to review page

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.0