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Book Reviewed by:The Girl with the Louding Voice meets The Water Dancer in Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ's magical, award-winning literary debut, Dazzling, offering a new take on West African mythology.
Treasure and her mother lost everything when Treasure's father died. Haggling for scraps in the market, Treasure meets a man who promises to change their fortunes, but his feet are hovering just a few inches above the ground. He's a spirit, and he promises to bring Treasure's beloved father back to life if she'll do one terrible thing for him first.
Ozoemena has an itch in the middle of her back. It's an itch that speaks to her patrilineal destiny, an honor never before bestowed upon a girl, to defend the land and protect its people by becoming a Leopard. Her father impressed upon her what an honor this was before he vanished, but it's one she couldn't want less—she has enough to worry about as she tries to fit in at a new boarding school.
But as the two girls reckon with their burgeoning wildness and the legacy of their missing fathers, Ozoemena's fellow students start to vanish. Treasure's obligations to the spirit escalate, and Ozoemena's duty of protection as a Leopard grows. Soon the girls' destinies and choices alike set them on a dangerous collision course. Ultimately, they must ask themselves: in a world that always says no to women, what must two young girls sacrifice to get what is theirs?
Chapter Thirty-Six
Treasure: Then
The goat is doing "mkpaaa-mkpaaa" in the boot. Ever since we left it have been making noise, even though driver tight its leg and hand and opened the boot so that it can hang its head outside and be getting breeze. Goat is not cow; they are always making noise. There is go-slow all the way from Onitsha to Agulu upon it have not yet reached ten o'clock in the morning, and Mummy is fanning herself because Driver can only be putting on AC small-small so that battery will not die.
"I don't know why you had to get dibia from Agulu, are there no longer people in Onitsha, eh?" Mummy is asking Driver again upon she have already asked him plenty time and Driver is telling her that he knows the man because he is his brother from his mother's side, and his gift is pure from God; he is not a wayo man. This time as she is asking Driver is not saying anything again, only minding his driving business, because after all, is not as if Mummy is looking for answer, she just...
The two storylines vacillate not only between perspective but also time. This format is handled impressively, sustaining interest and suspense despite the reader's lack of knowledge about what exactly is going on. Emelumadu achieves this in part through the episodic nature of the chapters, which read as an end in themselves, a feature that compensates somewhat for the book's ending, which feels abrupt and out of step with the emotional and ethical nuances of what comes before. Despite this disappointment, Dazzling is memorable in its portrayal of the persistence of grief, and it excels in showing what is sacrificed when people become mired in the past...continued
Full Review
(620 words)
(Reviewed by Elisabeth Cook).
Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
A vibrant, immersive read that takes the reader on a dizzying journey through Nigerian mythology. Emelụmadụ does what I love best in this novel: she lays bare human weaknesses and celebrates female strength; she builds a world bursting with magic, bright and visceral; she has created two immensely memorable protagonists and woven a story that will linger in my mind for a long time. Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree
Dazzling lives up to its name. I was entranced by the story of Treasure and Ozoemena – two young women who find themselves tested by forces both human and uncanny. Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ has crafted a coming-of-age tale like no other. Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring and A Single Thread
I am truly dazzled. Emelumadu has revealed surprising layers of our world and given me the eyes to see them.
In Chikodili Emelumadu's Dazzling, Ozoemena inherits the ability to transform into a leopard from her uncle, a power that comes with certain obligations and responsibilities. Her father's side of the family belongs to a secret society that maintains this tradition, a plot detail inspired in part by real-life phenomena. In an interview with Brittle Paper, Emelumadu notes that leopards have played a significant part in Igbo culture as sacred figures (as well as in other cultures of West African regions), and that historical "leopard societies" believed that they could take on the powers of the leopard for the purpose of keeping order in their communities.
"Not quite extrajudicial but skirting on the cusp, it was their job to punish crimes...
If you liked Dazzling, try these:
The History of a Difficult Child
by Mihret Sibhat
Published 2024
A breathtaking, tragicomic debut novel about the indomitable child of a scorned, formerly land-owning family who must grow up in the wake of Ethiopia's socialist revolution
by Nana Nkweti
Published 2021
A "boisterous and high-spirited debut" (Kirkus starred review), named one of the Most Anticipated Books for Brittle Paper, The Millions, and The Rumpus, penned by a finalist for the AKO Caine Prize.
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