A compelling but uneven refugee tale.
A boy from Sierra Leone must escape his city and become a refugee in this debut novel.
Saah Kamandu has a safe life in Freetown. He is the only son of a local elder and will one day be expected to take on the same leadership role. But for now, Saah is a young boy trying to get through primary school and make his family proud. This is no small task for a boy who also desires to skip his homework and play soccer with his friends each day. He has a loving family, money for an education, and a stable home. The rebels and their war against the Sierra Leone government are in the villages, not in Freetown. Until the conflict comes to Saah’s street. He and his brother-in-law narrowly escape forced conscription in the rebel army, but by running, they become refugees. Saah’s only hope for a better life lies in leaving his country and his identity behind. His odyssey takes him to a refugee camp in Ghana and eventually to Australia, where he confronts a new set of challenges. Bell’s gripping novel works best when the drama and tension surface not just from the violence of war and the terror of refugees, but from smaller moments that engage the senses. When Saah and his brother-in-law escape Sierra Leone in a fishing boat packed with other refugees, so stuffed no one is allowed to move for fear of capsizing the vessel, the author skillfully portrays the passengers’ discomfort: “They were sitting in salty water, greasy with engine oil, and constantly threatening to swamp the boat.” But Bell rarely spends much time relating the physical experiences of her characters. In an early confrontation, the rebels chop off Saah’s hand with an ax. Although the author mentions that the salt water on the boat “dried out his lips, made his eyes smart, and invaded every scratch and graze from the past few days,” she does not address his arm’s bloody stump and how that would be affected by the sea spray. While not exactly a continuity error, this passage may cause readers to go back and make sure they understood what happened: Did Saah really lose his hand? The answer is yes, though the narrative doesn’t always embody that reality. Still, Bell creates a sympathetic and complex protagonist who endures a daunting journey.
A compelling but uneven refugee tale.Pub Date: July 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9845-0681-8
Page Count: 264
Publisher: XlibrisAU
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
