EricaO

Oh yay! I just got the email telling me I won this in the First Reads giveaway! I was beginning to think they didn't love me anymore but I was wrong. Now I am excited!

3-12: Yay, it's here! It's here! Actually, it got here last week but I wasn't home. I am home now and it is here so I am reading! Hooray!

Review:
I was completely surprised by this book; I didn't expect to enjoy it quite this much. I expected it to be depressing and maybe even a little preachy. While it is definitely burdensome for the emotions, I was never actually down-and-out sad while reading it. Actually, the opposite often happened. Also, I never felt lectured in any way so I was both pleased with and entertained by this tale.

First, I liked the structure of this story; I liked it quite well. It took the shape I was so hoping for - the shape of a wrapped candy. Three separate lives come together for an instant (where the cellophane on the candy wrapper is twisted) then all spring away from each other and go their own ways in the same small area full of civil unrest leading into war (like where the cellophane is wrapped around the candy, a particularly yucky candy in this case) and then they all come together again. Just that shape made me ridiculously happy and I don't even know why. I guess because it was satisfying to see how their first interaction shaped their second interaction. Also, I'm so used to the funnel story where everyone is separate, then thrown together, then they are all in line for the rest of the story that this was a pleasant and refreshing tale-weaving.

Anyhow. I also enjoyed the language and style used in this book. It's not so foreign that it becomes incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't traveled to the Republic of Somaliland but there's enough not-America going on that you know you're not in America. Right, that sounds completely stupid; were I better at words, that would have sounded awesome. Just...you know this story takes place in Somalia.
Granted, my knowledge of Somalia is horribly limited. I read [b:Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad|8745|Desert Flower The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad|Waris Dirie|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386924384s/8745.jpg|2736618] and I saw internet headlines about pirates and I know there's a Tom Hanks movie about said pirates that's being used as a commercial for some app or another. And that's it. That is my entire bucket of knowledge about Somalia which is pretty sad. I am woefully undereducated when it comes to anything to do with Africa.
So books like this help!
Ok, I'm really no more knowledgeable about Somalia now, though it was interesting to read about the civil unrest of the 80's now that I'm an adult. This all happened when I was a kid and Somalia was a scary place like Russia but for different reasons. Now I know why it was so terrible, whereas I didn't when it was all actually happening.

I learned the why through the eyes of Deqo, Kawsar, and Filsan.

I loved these characters. I loved Deqo for the same reason I love Scout ([b:To Kill a Mockingbird|2657|To Kill a Mockingbird|Harper Lee|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361975680s/2657.jpg|3275794]) and Byrd ([b:The Witch of Belladonna Bay|18404320|The Witch of Belladonna Bay|Suzanne Palmieri|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1383353054s/18404320.jpg|26038182]) - these are kids I would want, girls who have moxy, children who see the world the way they see it, not as adults tell them to see it. Deqo is free-spirited but kind, gentle but savvy. She's a fighter but only when necessary and she still sees wonder in the world even though the world is a terrifying place that is falling down around her.

I hated Filsan but I understood why she was such a little monster. It made her ending all the more satisfying. The path to get there was also the most horrific because she had so much to figure out and needed a lot of kicks to her teeth.

And Kawsar. I liked her and rolled my eyes at her. Privileged but not a bad person, mostly haunted by memories. She'd given up but somehow continued on. I respected her toughness.

It's a sad story yet it's also uplifting. There are tons of beautiful moments, sentences that ooze description and depiction. Here's the first one I marked (and my ARC, here, is all marked up):
The myriad buildings that Deqo is slowly learning the names and purposes of appear in the edges of her vision as she steps into the pitted road. The library for keeping books to learn from, the museum for interesting objects from the past, the schools in which children are corralled and tamed, the hotel for wayfarers with money in their pockets - the existence of all these places brings pleasure, despite her belief that as a refugee she is not welcome inside.
See? The writing is not difficult to understand but that passage made me feel this young orphan's longing to belong while also explaining everyday things from the perspective of an outsider.

This review is so incoherant but I can't sit on it anymore; I need to have something up here because I said I would. This is the muddled result.

Abridged version: I liked this book a lot. It has strong, interesting characters, it describes a time I remember but know little about, it's a good story, and I am glad I got to read it.