Book review: Abi Dare’s sophomore book And So I Roar bites off more than it can chew

And So I Roar

By Abi Dare
Fiction/Sceptre/Paperback/374 pages/$29.05/Amazon SG (

amzn.to/3L7H1ka

)

And So I Roar is the sequel to The Girl With The Louding Voice (2020), the second novel by Essex-based Nigerian author Abi Dare.

Dare’s debut was a nominee for the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut novels published in Britain, so her sophomore book, to be released on Aug 6, is highly anticipated.

Picking up days after the end of the first book, it follows 14-year-old Adunni after she leaves her abusive former employers and prepares for her first day at school in Lagos, Nigeria, in the hope of becoming a teacher.

Her bright future is marred when a chief from her village Ikati, and Mr Kola, who sold Adunni into slavery, arrive to take her home for a ritual. They blame her for the death of a young woman after which Ikati suffers a drought, and they believe that sacrificing Adunni will appease the spirits and bring rain back.

Desperate to keep Adunni safe, her wealthy saviour Tia rashly accompanies the men to Ikati. A harrowing 24 hours ensue.

The perspectives, and the language, alternate between Adunni and Tia. Adunni’s chapters are told in non-standard and Pidgin English to show the development of her language skills, complete with confusion over sayings such as “don’t call attention to” and “catch the last flight” that non-native English speakers experience.

Tia’s voice is more fluent and educated, reflecting her wealthy background and education in Britain. Often, she uses complicated words despite knowing that Adunni and other Ikati villagers struggle to understand her.

Adunni’s unique use of words often creates more beautiful and impactful sentences, expressing emotions in a vivid manner that would likely not be thought of by native English speakers.

Moments after thinking that Tia was fatally shot, Adunni swears to herself: “I will not stop screaming. Never. I will slice my throat with the knife of my sorrow and pluck the box of my voice out and throw it all over Ikati!”

Adunni maintains her positivity despite her travails, encouraging her old friends to hope for a future beyond simply being teenage wives and mothers.

The impact of her attitude is felt by her friend Enitan: “No matter what happens this night, I will take all what you been teaching me and keep it in my heart like a book, and when I am alone and sad, and not sure of things, I can check inside my heart, and find the book and open the page and read your words.”

While Adunni’s language is lively and engaging, the pacing struggles to maintain tension despite the book’s relative brevity. Boldly attempting to cover topics including child brides, modern slavery, archaic beliefs and practices, parent-child relationships and the fight for women’s rights, the novel sadly feels at times more like a lecture than a story.

Tia’s character suffers from a saviour complex of sorts, believing that her money, education and work with the Lagos Environmental Consultancy can easily solve everything. Rather than listening to the people around her, she behaves as though she can single-handedly rectify generations of old-fashioned beliefs and traditions.

While Dare manages a happy ending and sets up enough intrigue for the potential of a third book, the resolution feels more like a best-case scenario conveniently coming together. The story could be more impactful if the final chapters had more time to unfurl rather than hurriedly resolving all character arcs and plot points.

Book rating: Three out of five stars

If you like this, read: The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare (Dutton Books, 2020, $9, Amazon SG, go to

amzn.to/4bBeRbY

). Adunni’s journey begins as she is married off as the third wife of an old man and, later, secretly sold as a domestic servant to a rich family in Lagos.