Who Fears Death

Written by Nnedi Okorafor

Narrated by Nneka Okoye

An award-winning literary author enters the world of magical realism with her World Fantasy Award-winning novel of a remarkable woman in post-apocalyptic Africa.

Now optioned as a TV series for HBO, with executive producer George R.R. Martin!

In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the colour of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different – special – she names her Onyesonwu, which means ‘Who fears death?’ in an ancient language.

It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. She is Ewu – a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by her community. But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.

Desperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love, and the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9780008288730

Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor is an award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. Born in the US to Nigerian immigrant parents, Okorafor is known for weaving African cultures into creative settings and memorable characters. Her book, Who Fears Death has been optioned by HBO, with Game of Thrones' George R.R. Martin as executive producer. Okorafor is a full-time professor at the University at Buffalo, New York (SUNY).  

Reviews for Who Fears Death

[jessiqa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book grabs you by the throat on page one. It’s the story of Onyesonwu, an outcast who possesses strong magical abilities and a lot of rage. She works to control both (with varying success) and goes on a quest to change the world as she knows it. See, she is Ewu, her mother being an Okeke woman who was raped by a Nuru man. In this post-apocalyptic world, Okekes are treated as slaves by Nurus. Onyesonwu hopes to change that.While this is a story of a Chosen One, she differs from the trope by not being perfect. Onyesonwu has flaws and sometimes they make her falter. She also has love and friends who support her in varying degrees. While the reader may not always understand Onyesonwu’s choices or agree with them, it always makes for an interesting journey. The story is dark and violent, yet there are hints of beauty and hope throughout. There’s a prequel called The Book of the Pheonix and now I need to read it too. I want to know so much more of this world.

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Onyesonwu is the outcast child of a mother who cannot speak above a whisper. Her skin and hair clearly mark her as Ewu, a child of both Nuru and Okeke, a combination despised by Nuru and Okeke alike. Her gender makes the only sorcerer in the village unwilling to teach her. And her shapeshifting and nigh-uncontrollable magic make her neighbors fear and hate her. After her father dies and her magical powers manifest themselves at his funeral, she flees into the desert to avoid mob violence and to seek her nemesis: the man who raped her mother, sired her, and has been trying to kill her ever since. She is accompanied on her quest by four friends, her true love, and a herd of free-spirited camels.

This is an ambitious but frustrating work. Ambitious because it tackles head-on issues of rape, child abuse, child soldiers, female genital cutting, adolescent sexuality, genocide...Okorafor never flinches. But frustrating because the main character is pretty unlikable, the plot is your classic bildungsroman, and the pacing is terrible. Onye has a wide, bewildering array of magic powers that she seems to forget about just when the plot requires her to. After three hundred pages of exhaustively described meals and screamed dialog, she solves genocide in the last, like, two pages? And then there are something like three epilogues? It's not great.

Spoilers from here on out: Onyesonwu is not a particularly moral person. She forces entire towns (children included) to relive her mother's rape. She strikes another town (again, children included) blind. She explodes an entire, occupied building. She kills every fertile man, and forces every fertile woman to be pregnant (with what, I'm not sure). When her best friends come to her for help, she turns into a vulture and flies away, rages at them, or dismisses them. Once in a while, she'll actually have a conversation with one of her supposed bffs, but mostly she's either screaming at them or deriding them in her head. I'm not sure how much we're supposed to agree with Onyesonwu. She does terrible, awful things to unnamed villagers, but then lauds herself for not killing her bio-father (the architect of all the attempted genocide of the Okeke). And all the elderly sorcerers are like, "wow, well done, you're so awesome." What?

And I have no clue what actually happens at the end. Onye rewrites the Great Book, which will apparently stop Nuru/Okeke violence somehow, then gets captured and executed (as was prophesied). The person she was narrating this to even digs up her corpse and re-buries her in the desert. But then two epilogues later it turns out she turned into a Kponyungo, killed her guards, was never executed, and in fact flew away to the Great Greeny Jungle? And then the epilogue says all the Nuru waiting to execute Onye are still waiting for her so they can execute her? Even though they already did? Argh, it makes my head hurt. To me, it doesn't seem clever, it seems sloppy. If she never died, then where did her corpse come from?

Plus, I don't get how her re-write of the Great Book changed anything. So she killed all the fertile men, made all the fertile pregnant, and gave all women magical powers. Great. What on earth is that supposed to do? How would that possibly stop the war between Nuru and Okeke? The book spends so much time talking about who each of her friends is sleeping with that the end of genocidal hatred comes in about three sentences. It's just jammed into the end, as though the author suddenly realized she needed to wrap it up.

I'm disappointed, because I expected to really like this book. As it is, it's so flawed (in my eyes) that I'm giving it 3 stars only out of respect for the breadth and depth of issues and world-building Okorafor attempts here, and not for any engaging writing or story.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Totally unlike anything I have ever read, fantasy or post-apocalyptic. Very interesting and philosophical, but some parts are rather slow.

[holly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written. You won’t be disappointed with this story. I highly recommend this book.

[scottddanielson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nnedi Okorafor is known as a YA author, but this is her first adult novel. And it’s very adult, with some difficult scenes of rape and violence.This is not my typical fare, but I’m glad to have read it. It’s a mixed bag genre-wise, being a fantasy set in post-apocalyptic Africa. There’s a bit of science fiction here, but it’s not well developed and not important to the plot, which is driven by the magical education of Onyesonwu, a “chosen one” character picked to stop genocide. Of particular interest to me were the feminist and African cultural elements. I have no idea how the magic ties into African myth and tradition, but I’m guessing that it does. It was certainly rich and, in the end, rewarding.

[Angela Awuku · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a fantastic story. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved every bit of it.

[mooingzelda · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Who Fears Death is a dark, speculative novel set in Sudan at an unspecified point in the future. We know it's the future because computers are relics and people rely on 'capture stations' to draw clean water out of the air. We follow the story of Onyesonwu, the child of rape and a sorceress who is determined to put an end to the race-based conflict between the Okeke and Nuru people. Along the way, she is supported by the love of her life, Mwita, and three female friends. This novel certainly grabbed me from the very beginning, a rather astonishing scene centred around the death of Onye's father when she is just 16. I loved the first person perspective and the back-and-forth retelling of her journey from a child brought up in the desert to an adult with magical powers. The darker themes of the story address not just rape and racism, but also the power dynamics between men and women in this futuristic world, mainly through Onye's treatment by other male sorcerers (including her own partner). Parts of the story can be hard to read, but they're also absolutely necessary to get the most from the novel. It was interesting - and sad - to read the author's note in the end about her being inspired by a real-life news story about violence in Sudan between Arab and African groups.I thoroughly enjoyed reading Who Fears Death. I think it's not quite a five-star read for me because it felt like the action overtook the character/personality development of the main group of characters towards the end, and I also think there were some issues that were left unresolved and that I would have liked to have seen wrapped. But this is still an excellent novel, and so refreshing for this fan of fantasy writing to read something worlds away from the traditional white narratives that I'm used to seeing.

[chrisriesbeck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An Afrofuturist classic. Though set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, it only makes sense as fantasy, given the powers that various characters have. Though rage drives the story, it doesn't fall into the one-note tedium that can often result. There's are clear villains, and a larger number of those guilty by inaction, but there's also a lot of nuance in the primary characters and their arcs, reminiscent of Octavia Butler.Where the prequel, The Book of the Phoenix, was driven primarily by how the medical community exploited blacks and others, Who Fears Death is focused on the weaponization of rape, child warriors, and the second-class status of women in society. My main negative is that, while this is less of a superhero comic than Phoenix, it still seems to have just one way to resolve a crisis. There are multiple scenes best visualized as a full page spread where a torrent of power issues forth from main character, blasting one and all to edges of the page. Despite that caveat, highly recommended.

[eas7788 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A complicated and hard book. Fully fascinating world. I'll read anything she writes.

[bhiggs-822148 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was...interesting? I'm not going to say it was bad, or that it was good. It was written well enough that I got through it (albeit it a little slowly). It handles a female protagonist pretty well...I was confused about some of the magic descriptions, though. Also the ending. Also most of the book. I wonder how the HBO version will be? Lots of sex. Meh.

[liscarey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In a far-future Africa, in a region plagued by waves of genocide, a baby girl is born of rape, and her mother names her Onyesonwu, a name which means "Who fears death?" Her mother is Okeke, her mother's rapist Nunu. Onyesonwu herself is Awo, what the Okeke and Nunu alike call the products of such rape. She has sand-colored hair and skin, not to be mistaken for either the dark brown Okeke, or the golden-skinned Nunu who persecute them.But Onyesonwu is different, with gifts her mother demanded of the gods, but which at first neither the girl herself nor those around her suspect. She makes friends, and rivals, and becomes the apprentice of an old, traditional shaman, who at first strongly resists teaching a girl.As her powers manifest, Onyesonwu is pursued by resentment, fear, and a bizarre prophecy. Onyesonwu and her friends set out on a journey to confront the prophecy, and death, and the sorcerer who haunts her dreams.There's wonderful, rich, layered world-building, here. There's also wonderful characterization, and complex, believable relationships, that develop and change and produce surprises along the way. I read science fiction and fantasy to experience new and different people, ideas, and things, and this offers that in abundance. Meanwhile, the plot carries us along to an unexpected and satisfying ending.Highly recommended.I bought this audiobook.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a stunning, originally, wrenching, but beautifully rendered novel about the power one can exert over the ugliness of circumstances. Onyesonwu is a remarkable character, and I hated leaving her behind when I finished reading. Trigger warning for those who need it: there are frank (though not too graphic, thankfully) discussions of rape as a major plot point. Just a fair warning.

10.16.17 re-read: Onyesonwu is just as compelling a character, though I do feel the lack of worldbuilding more this read. Still a beautiful and empowering book amidst violence, war, and despair.

[samnreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a good, satisfying and quick read. While it is fantasy, much of it is grounded in reality-as the blurb on the back of the book says.
I loved Okorafor's voice, the fierce and unrepentant feminism in her characters, and I look forward to watching her create more compelling stories.

[sumisbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Torn...Onyesonwu is a child of rape (outcast) with magical powers that must go on an epic quest to stop the genocide of her mother's people.This book has some very touching moments as well as some very meaningful ones. However, this book contains TONS of triggers such as vividly describing rape and mutilation scenes as well as other tender subject matters. I personally was not prepared for these as I try not to read reviews of books before I pick them up from my personal library. I fear that it taints the review that I end up writing and I want to have my thoughts clear and my own.I found the story to be a little cliche even though the setting was amazing and fresh. Set in post-apocalyptic Africa as sort of a cyberpunk world, this was definitely something new and surprising to me and something that I really enjoyed about the book. But the story itself is your typical "chosen one", "prophecy" and "epic quest" story. The ending absolutely fell flat for me. I felt, as the reader, that I received no justice by the ending of this book for all the atrocities that I had lived through while reading it. It almost made me feel like I was wronged by this book. I don't want to give too much detail away, suffice it to say that for a 400+ page book that deals with such serious subject matters that can be applied to the real world, the ending could have been written better.In closing I will say that I appreciate what the author of this book was trying to do and the things that she was trying to convey. I appreciate this book for the simple fantasy novel that it is but for the real world issues that this book touches on quite heavily, I felt it there just should have been more to it.

[allison_s-802575 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a gorgeous novel. It's set in a post-apocalyptic Saharan world and narrated by Onyesonwu, a young woman searching for her genocidal sorcerer father. All in all, a very interesting change from the glut of cookie cutter white-boy-in-medieval-Europe fantasy things we're used to.

There are quite a few horrifying, heartbreaking scenes (female circumcision, weaponized rape, genocide, to name some), so read with caution. This was definitely not a straightforward fantasy journey or coming-of-age story and there are a ton of interesting and, often uncomfortable, themes presented here.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Onyesonwu is the child of rape, an Ewu, the daughter of an Okeke woman and a Nuru man. The Okeke have always been subjected to the Nuru, and the history of violence between these people has taken its toll. As a young woman, Onye recounts her childhood and growth into the one who's going to change everything.The first words drew me in immediately and though a couple of times my interest flagged it was more to do with my inability to sit down and read for long stretches than any real flaw in the storytelling. Onye and her friends are fantastic characters. Though the story is violent and difficult, it's powerful and compelling, defying easy categorization into a particular genre just as Onye herself doesn't fit in a simple box. I can't believe I've never read any of this author's work before; it certainly won't be the last.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Although written some years before "The Book of Phoenix", this novel takes place centuries after the story of Phoenix. Although one need not read Phoenix first, I did feel my reading was informed by having done so. Once again, Dr. Okorafor explores sexism, racism, colonialism and the nature of love, hate, good and evil. A profound book hung on a well-told tale of adventure and coming of age. This writer should be nominated for the Nobel Literature Prize!

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story is more dark fantasy than Post-apocalyptic. There is no reference to the outside world beyond the existence of computers and the author's reference to Sudan as a country. A sorceress of prophecy has a difficult life as the child of rape and mixed race, and she becomes as violent as her world in order to change it.

[needmoreshelves · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I almost loved this novel. I was fully here for the post-apocalyptic Africa setting, and the burgeoning feminist-ism of the main characters, and the hits against racism and misogyny. I love a good coming-of-age quest novel, and some meaty dystopia always makes me want to read more.It just felt like something - something - was missing. I never quite felt like I understood or tracked with some of the key relationships in the novel. I wanted more development of some of the secondary characters, that seemed to play a major part in Onye's journey. And the ending felt....well, it seemed a bit too neat and tidy that a quest that took 375 pages and the deaths of several main characters could be resolved in one chapter. This novel had the spark of something great, but for me it never quite arrived. I love the author's ideas, however, and will definitely be reading more of her work.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although it took me ages to pick this up to start reading, I enjoyed it when I did. A different setting for a fantasy / sci-fi although at heart it is still a basic quest story.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For me this is more interesting and original than the Binti books. The characters and setting and culture(s) were intriguing and the magic both clear enough and mysterious enough to keep me wanting to learn more. It could have done without the last two epilogue chapters and been more powerful for it, as having the heroines mastery of her skills, temper, and impulse was the least original aspect of the story. The pacing was a bit jerky and sometimes it was necessary to 'push through', though never painful.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This read like a YA novel in a--not sci-fi, not fantasy, not post-apocalyptic, though people have called it all those things--but a really vividly imagined alter-Sahel, and so at the same time I extended patience to the gossipy teeny rendering of the social dynamics of the little band on their way across the desert and the characters (absolutely characters, not people, collections of traits, as much as in Dickens, and the art suffers for it as little as in Dickens) and lost myself in the world in a way that would have been harder if it had worn prognostication or great inventiveness on its sleeve. It had the pacing and power of myth (alongside the gossipy teeny rendering!), and images I'll remember, and I'd watch the hell out of the movie.

[kaitanya64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is not a usual genre for me, so for me to give this a high rating, it had to be good. The author draws from a variety of archetypes of African and Western tradition to create a futuristic African setting that not only has a compelling storyline, but made me think about contemporary issues such as the place of women in religion and African society, the fate of African societies torn apart by race hatred, the effects of environmental degradation on human societies. Well worth moving out of my comfort zone for this book.

[mrs_mcgreevy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent combination of African folk mythology and science fiction, anchored by great characters and some truly amazing writing.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I could not put this book down. I loved that it took common high-fantasy tropes and transferred them to post-apocalyptic Africa. I loved the writing and I loved the central character.

Unfortunately, the book stumbled in the second half with some weird pacing issues, the failure to place logical limits on the heroine's growing power, and an ending that fell flat for me (although I realize some people loved it).

Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed this read and recommend the book. I will be looking for anything Okorafor publishes in the future.

[klburnside · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Who Fears Death is a sci-fi/fantasy novel and tells the story of Onyesonwu, a girl in post-apocalyptic Sudan. She is the child of rape, her mother being a member of a persecuted ethnic group, her father a member of the oppressive ethnic group. Because of this, she is always somewhat of an outcast, but as she grows up she begins to learn she has magical powers and a special destiny. She becomes a trained sorceress and works to overthrow her father and the oppressive regime he represents. I really wanted to like this book. It felt fresh and different and feminist, and I tried really hard to get into it. I just couldn't really do it. The book deals with a lot of really heavy issues, many of which are very graphically described. Female genital mutilation, genocide, and rape as a weapon of genocide all play prominent roles in the novel. These issues are all relevant to recent conflicts in Sudan, and I was really intrigued to see how the author would weave them into a post-apocalyptic Sudan full of magic and sorcery and how it could be a commentary on current/recent events. I never really felt like a satisfying connection was made. Also, the society in the novel was very much shaped by the people's belief in the stories and teachings of "The Great Book," and I waiting for a more clear commentary on religious fundamentalism and the power of stories and religion to shape people's attitudes. While this was obviously a theme, it didn't play out as strongly as I was hoping. This is not a genre that appeals to me in general, so I think I was mostly just turned off by all the magic and shape-shifting and mysticism.

[missizicks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you think Katniss Everdene is kickass wait until you meet Onyesonwu.Part dystopian fantasy, part traditional folk tale, Nnedi Okorafor's tale of inter-tribal violence, rape and female castration is unshirking in its telling.The book is a quest to put right ancient wrongs, to make reparation, to rewrite a twisted culture's holy book. Onyesonwu is both sorceress and teenager, a woman of incredible power who has to learn how to control that power. The book is about love, about being seen and accepted by those who love you and how that can empower a person to become who they are meant to be. Rooted as it is in African traditions, the magic and fantasy is far more interesting than the swords and sorcery of Western literature. Onyesonwu is a deliciously feisty character as well. You should read it.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a pretty difficult review to write. I still feel like there is a lot I haven't unpacked from this story. I may come back and revise it. Also, there are plenty of unmarked spoilers.Onyesonwu is the mixed-race daughter of a rape with hair and skin the color of sand, despised by both her mother's and father's people, who discovers that she possesses great magical powers: shapeshifting, resurrection of the dead, and the ability to transport herself into an alternate reality.This story is set in a post-apocalyptic Sudan, so far in the future that the people have forgotten their history and only know what is written in the Great Book, a religious text all children have to study. Only a few vestiges of modern civilization remain--some computers and handheld electronic devices, as well as water capture stations that enable people to live in the desert. (At one point, Onyesonwu and her companions take shelter from a storm in a cave where they discover a mound of dead computers and other electronics, which frightens them for unspecified reasons, hinting at an ingrained fear of the trappings of our modern civilization.) Onyesonwu's mother's people, black Africans called the Okeke, have been murdered, subjugated, and enslaved by Arabic Africans called the Nuru, with the blessing of the Great Book. White people seem completely unknown to either race--perhaps mostly killed off in whatever apocalypse happened?--and Onyesonwu only meets one white character, a sorcerer-mentor whose skin color completely mystifies her. Another race of nomadic red people live in the desert in the center of a gigantic sandstorm; they practice magic routinely and seem to have no modern counterparts. Onyesonwu's mother was brutally raped and impregnated by a Nuru soldier. Onyesonwu discovers later that her biological father is a sorcerer who will lead a genocide of the Okeke. She undergoes female genital circumcision at the age of 11, believing that this will make her family more accepted in her village. This causes her to involuntarily transport into an alternate plane, where she attracts her father's attention. Onyesonwu undergoes training in the magic arts so that she can protect herself from him, and eventually learns that she is prophesied to defeat the genocide.Onyesonwu is an angry young woman. She is angry at the enslavement of the Okeke based solely on their race, and angry at the Okeke for subjugating themselves to slavery. She is angry at the treatment she and her lover Mwita receive because they are mixed-race outcasts, or Ewu. She is angry at the treatment of women by everyone--rape, prostitution, enforced celibacy of unmarried women via the FGC rite, the refusal of the village sorcerer Aro to take her on as a student at first just because she is female. Onyesonwu's story is a subversion of the Christ story. She is prophesied to free her people from enslavement, and she knows that she will have to sacrifice herself as a result. She embarks on her own hero's journey to confront her father, taking her lover and best friends with her as traveling companions. She enacts several miracles along the way, but these are miracles of vengeance and wrath, not healing and teaching. She blinds an entire village. In another village, she makes all the men disappear and impregnates all the women. She is stoned to death as she has foreseen, but once her body is dug up and reburied, she is able to avoid her execution and escapes from the desert land to a distant paradise.Because of her anger, Onyesonwu is not an easy savior to admire or like. Not only does she lose her temper frequently and unleash her great powers on everyone around her, but she also is impatient and snappish with her friends and often elects to run away instead of confront conflict. While she comes to regret some of her decisions, such as undergoing the circumcision rite, she doesn't show remorse for many of her deeds. Her anger is part of her, and justified. Probably she would be unable to accomplish what she does without it.But Onyesonwu's anger--women's anger--often makes us uncomfortable, and we are unused to seeing it as the focus of literature. That, and many other things, can make this a difficult book to read. Onyesonwu turns her critical eye on everyone around her. No one is an innocent in this world--except perhaps the mysterious red tribe, where Onyesonwu experiences a period of learning, growth, and relative tranquility. This book is steeped in magic, unfamiliar cultural references, and an ambiguous history. Sometimes we have to read between the lines; other times, we have to let events flow without questioning the logic too closely. Opening ourselves up to this story may be difficult, but the experience is powerful and rewarding.

[junerain-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review contains spoilers.Overall, I enjoyed Who Fears Death, and was fascinated to read a modern fantasy novel not rooted in Judeo-Christian mythology. However, I struggled with some of the lack of consequences and resolutions throughout the novel. Especially in one off subplots (ex: when they hide in the cave during the thunderstorm), unsettling and horrifying things are introduced but no explanation is ever offered. These minor incidents don't seem to impact the characters going forward. Only landmark events throughout the plot seem to have a lasting effect on Onye. I also struggled a lot with the way that some of the social issues were dealt with. The female genital mutilation was so horrific for the characters initially, but had a relatively easy fix and didn't go on to impact the characters after they'd been healed. Characters who were sexist or racist were generally sexist or racist at the end of the book, or they were cured by magic. There wasn't much nuanced middle ground there.Despite some of these problems, I was invested in the story and cared about what happened to Onye. I would recommend this as an interesting read, even if things don't get tied up as neatly as they could have been. However, much of the content of this book is not for the faint of heart, and I would probably not recommend this to children under 15.

[wishanem · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I found this book depressing and relentlessly bleak. I kept going after a few incidents of intricately-detailed physical and emotional violence, but the protagonist's circumstances only got worse and worse. I did not like any of the characters, and the dialogue felt boring and inauthentic to me.

Due to the nature of its content, I could not bring myself to finish this book.