The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Daré
The Girl with the Louding Voice is one of those books that has you rooting for a happy ending almost from page one, knowing that you could never forgive the author if there wasn’t one. Born in a small town in Nigeria, the only thing Adunni wants is an education, which for a poor girl with siblings to care for, turns out to be the fight of her life. What I most loved about this novel was the complexity of its female characters; or rather, their completely realistic portrayal. Because we know that no one is 100% good or 100% bad, and sometimes people hurt others because they themselves have been hurt and need to continue the cycle in order to feel better. Daré’s depiction of her characters lays out just that—the cycle of hurt, and how those within it can be forgiven and shown how to be better. It’s a book that leaves one hopeful for the future, if only it can contain compassionate and brave fighters like Adunni.
The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai
Stretching from the AIDS crisis in 1980s Chicago to present day Paris, The Great Believers makes personal a time in which many of us hadn’t been born yet (hello 90s children), wrapping the fear, the love, and the all the other emotions into one beautiful story about the family we choose, and how those people can turn out to be more important than the family you were born with. Through including one man’s sister as one of the narrative story lines, readers are also able to see the trauma that continues on into the present day of the people who survived those years, and how it permeates every aspect of their lives. I began this book knowing nothing about it (as I do most books) and simply fell into the story lines and characters and became quite attached to them, even though I knew the ending would be bittersweet.