Book Review Competition 2023

“Dear Uncle, Is everything you love foreign / or are you foreign to everything you love?”

Warsan Shire’s bold and heartfelt descriptions of flawed family relationships in her poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head, have taken root in my soul. Through her exceptional poems Shire explores Black womanhood, the experiences of being an immigrant in Britain and the reconciliation of family and trauma. The delicate thread of family – particularly the mother-daughter relationship – runs throughout, as tender as a nerve.

Shire’s striking command of form is seen in the wonderfully illustrative structure of Backwards. Home’s moving monologue brims with a painfully powerful candour; it should be compulsory reading nation-wide. Her Blue Body Full of Light impacted me greatly as it stares down the possibility of losing a sibling to cancer, something I have myself faced, with the subsequent poems of grief providing a devastating window into the loss which could have been.

Read this collection to be shattered; read it to live another lifetime, one which encompasses the domestic and the dangerous, travels with ease through the stories of relatives and is filled with blinding empathy; read this collection to be changed.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head felt like revisiting old scars, re-opening them, and healing them. It embraces a liberation of the self, with resonance to both the specific and universal in a way that hits deeply. Shire commands the weight of issues into something unapologetic. We cannot help but face the suffering of refugees, oppression of black women and rejection from a society claiming hospitality.

The poetry collection, separated into four sections, meanders through the clutches of fear, empowerment, and grief. They explore the jagged and disjointed relationships between a family torn by an unsafe home.

My favourite poem would have to be ‘Bless your ugly daughter’ elegant in its imagery of war, I audibly gasped at “her hands are a civil war” as it delicately raises the volatility of war and the oppression of women.

The mesmeric, rhythmic poetry pulls you headfirst into a story of trauma, survival, and hope. Shire’s heart beats within her poetry, periodically bursting the grey world of adversity into a vibrant faith. Having read it in one sitting, the book pulled me into Shire’s beautiful and raw world. Please take it by its hands and find out for yourself.

The short story collection Send Nudes delves deeply into the complications of contemporary relationships, social networking, and self-acceptance. In her work, Saba Sams deftly combines themes of love, desire, vulnerability, and empowerment, portraying the essence of the modern human experience. Sams' ability to transmit significant truths and insights using common language and humour is one of the collection's strengths. Her literature is both relatable and approachable while also being incredibly touching and sad. The stories are given a special touch by the use of social media and technology as a backdrop, emphasising how these platforms affect our relationships and sense of self. 'Send Nudes' also stands out for the author's openness to embrace vulnerability and explore challenging feelings. This collection is both relevant and empowering since Sams' debut novel addresses problems like body image, mental health, and the difficulties of modern relationships with honesty and sensitivity. Overall, "Send Nudes" is a compelling and moving collection of short stories that presents a novel and perceptive viewpoint on the intricacies of contemporary living for young women. This book by Saba Sams, a gifted writer with a distinctive style, is well worth reading.

Following nine heart-wrenching stories of queer relationships in Nigeria, God's Children Are Little Broken Things depicts the tragedy of love when faced with the limitations of society, fame, family, and most importantly, one’s self. Arinze Ifeakandu outlines the struggles within gay relationships, suggesting a painful need to stay disconnected as a form of self-protection.

With familiar references to pop music and modern TV shows, Ifeakandu has universally made readers feel connected to the protagonists, loving and aching with them on their journeys of grief. With grief as a central theme, the short stories explore the similarities between the death of a family member, losing a partner, and the complexities of losing part of one’s self. All interconnected, the stories expose the human desire to bond with someone in a time of loss.

Most importantly, Ifeakandu boldly faces the challenges of homophobia whilst growing up gay in Nigeria. Then, expanding on public abuse, he explored internalised self-hatred from ingrained homophobia. In "Happy is a Doing Word," Binyelum describes his homosexual desires as "too abominable for God’s grace," revealing an internalised shame; self-punishment for who he loves. Set against a backdrop of political unrest in Nigeria, Ifeakandu beautifully draws on conflict to unveil love.

Sheena Patel’s I’m A Fan is an authentic, modern interpretation of today’s woman; observant of how casual sex defines a woman’s self-image and esteem. Patel invites the reader to view and study her consciousness, whilst simultaneously demonstrating the thought process of most contemporary women; as if we ourselves were reading back on our own thoughts.

This unhinged, explosive, yet relatable debut explores themes of race, materialism and FOMO, allowing for a novel that truly captures the essence of what it is to be a woman. The constant comparisons between the narrator and the “woman I am obsessed with” is a devastating reflection of today’s beauty standards, further illustrating Patel’s ability to write in a such way that conveys her very feelings to the reader.

Although the majority of the novel is filled with uncensored honesty and candour, the unnamed narrator fails to express her concluding thoughts and feelings, leaving the reader begging for more- but that might just be the genius of Patel’s work.

Overall, Sheena Patel’s I’m A Fan is a brilliant recollection of experiences that speaks to any female reader, especially those who have struggled with being the ‘second choice’ due to the colour of their skin. It is a heartbreaking commentary on what it is to be a woman, and as much as many of the narrator’s actions are questionable, the reader embodies an amplified sense of understanding and empathy for her, as many of her experiences are universal amongst us women.