Will I love The Girl with the Louding Voice?

I listened to this one on audio--and a book like this was made for audio. Adjoa Andoh (of Bridgerton fame) narrates and her storytelling made this one of the most compelling immersive stories I've listened to or read in a long time.

I think Adunni might be one of my favorite heroines of all time. She’s so brave, loveable, and vulnerable. This book opened my eyes to what it’s like to live in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable, but it made me so hopeful, too. Adunni’s rebel spirit propelled me through the pages.

In a way, this book made me feel ten years old again–when I was reading, it was as though nothing beyond the book existed. Every time Adunni triumphed, I wanted to stand up and cheer. Most of all, it made me feel I could do my bit… show more.

This story, set in Nigeria, is a commentary on social economics and gender without sounding like one.

Fourteen-year-old Adunni wants an education to actualize her voice and make a difference but is seen as a commodity by her father and sold to be an old man's third wife. When tragedy hits her new household, she is backhandedly sold as a domestic servant.

I immediately fell in love with Adunni, savoring her simple but insightful descriptions. I identified with the grief she felt for her mother. Though heartbreaking at times, her determination was inspirational and encouraging as I continue on my… show more.

A young woman from Nigeria in awful circumstances with the help of an American woman, finds the fortitude to stand up for herself, and realize her dream of an education,

It highlights the choices we all have as women, to go against the tide to fight for what we want or live a life of quiet obscurity. A triumph of the female spirit.

I found this modern story empowering. In fact, I did not want this gut-wrenching, gripping story to end. The story is set in Nigeria in 2014, a pre-election year, the year in which Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls. It is related in pidgin English by a naïve 14-year-old girl Adunni, who lives in a village in Nigeria. After Adunni’s mother dies, her father pulls Adunni out of school and marries her off to an old man using the bride price to pay the family’s rent. Later, Adunni is tricked into becoming a housemaid to a rich, abusive lady, Big Madam.

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This novel taught me more about Nigeria than I could ever have learned from reading scholarly histories. Adunni is the narrator of her own story, and her voice has the rhythms, textures, and energy of a child bursting to express herself – to locate and validate herself – in a life where she struggles for agency. Daré gives us the political, economic, and cultural context of modern Nigeria whose forces work mostly against Adunni, but it’s never didactic. Adunni is compelling, admirable, and adorable, but while you sense she will ultimately break her bonds, she evokes thousands of Nigerian girls… show more.

The Girl With the Louding Voice is a triumphant novel, written with the compelling voice of a young Nigerian girl named Adunni. As she says, "I am not a wasted waste. I am Adunni. A person important enough because my tomorrow will be better than today."

Surviving what is often a violent and cruel life, I find myself cheering at the beauty of Adunni’s spirit.