Review of Leaving Dahomey

[Alice Creanga]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Leaving Dahomey" by Jude Shaw.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The action of Leaving Dahomey is set in the 1800s in West Africa. The book is set to follow young Adeoha, who doesn’t think too much of her own capabilities but accepts her first friend Sewextu’s nomination to enter the Language Drums Society. However, soon after Adeoha will feel restricted in her dance and will not continue her membership.

That being said, Adeoha’s choice of entering the Language Drum Society is the decisive factor that changes her life. As the book is meant to be as close to reality as possible, this plotline is very well captured by the author: as it happens in real life as well, small decisions result in big changes. However, the development of the story is extremely slow and there aren’t any sudden plot twists to keep the reader in suspense.

To bring the reader closer to the place and time of the action, Jude Shaw used many local words, which he then explained in brackets. This is a very good idea, however, what’s too much is never good and this is where I believe that the author should have been aware that the over usage of foreign words makes the reading terribly sluggish.

I reckon that the reason for the lack of real excitement might be the fact that it is the first book of a trilogy and probably Shaw wanted to just set the background for the next books. I can agree with this, but if the first book doesn’t have any real hooks, the next ones might not get read at all.

Unfortunately, I found this book quite difficult to read. I would have liked to get to know Adeoha better, but for some reason, her thoughts, concerns, aspirations, etc., are not explored long enough to create a connection between her and the reader. We are just presented what she does, but it seems as if we are not allowed to enter her mind or to understand her emotions. This drastically lowers the character’s likability. Moreover, detrimental to Adeoha’s character development, we are told lengthy background stories about secondary characters.

Overall, I believe that this book might be enjoyed by someone else due to the slow-moving action. Moreover, I think that the book would benefit from a professional editor’s attention as there are several errors that require fixing. Therefore, I will rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I removed one star due to the lack of action, over usage of foreign words, and flat character and another one for the editing.

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Leaving Dahomey
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