A Spell of Good Things

While the story touches on important stuff the writing style was so dry and flat and there were so many characters that all more or less sounded the exact same that I just never really got into the proverbial swing of it.

Neutral 2.5 rounded up.

It was alright, just didn't hold my attention

I think I put a hold on this based on a positive pre-release review, and when it came in I was like “wait what's this?” I hadn't read Adebayo's apparently highly-acclaimed debut novel but I guess I was interested in a contemporary Nigerian coming of age novel. I think ultimately it's an accomplished novel that just maybe didn't quite hit for me. I see other reviews calling it “Dickensian” and I'm like, that's probably apt and I'm not the biggest Dickens enthusiast? Like the social commentary is very blunt, at least to my white American POV. A thought-provoking read but not necessarily one I'm going to call a must-read. CW for domestic violence, violence violence, death of a child.