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samukele's review
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Child death
drakaina16's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Ableism, Animal death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault
aparker89's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I really enjoyed reading about Nigeria, learning about their local lore and discovering how religions twists and turns to allow for it. This spooky story plays at a coming of age story with ghosts and terrors both supernatural and entirely too human!
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Gaslighting, War, Ableism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Slavery
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Sexual violence, Colonisation, and Miscarriage
raforall's review
4.0
http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/2016/10/31-days-of-horror-day-26-review-of.html
ipelengreads's review
3.0
kpkulski's review
5.0
becsa's review
3.0
Obele must protect herself from the evil around her and relies on Mother Voice to keep her safe. Yet Mother Voice also leads her to meet "others" who help protect her. When the war comes and their family is forced to move will Obele's mom lead her into more danger proclaiming she is a demon?
I enjoyed this book and have never read a book considered African Horror before. At certain times during the book I felt as though I was losing a bit of interest and had to refocus as some parts seemed a bit tedious.
Emotionally I found the book so depressing with what Kene and Obele had to go through. Obele endured so many beatings and degradation that my heart continually broke for her and I was shocked at what her parents put her through. The ending for me was so disappointing as that was really not the way I wanted to see it end.
I did enjoy the look at the mystery behind someone who is deemed a demon and how Brother Emmanuel tried to get the demon out of her. Again it was her mom who didn't protect her but it is the unknown that we fear the most.
ephemerawoman's review
5.0
Using the Biafran war as a backdrop, Onoh blends supernatural and real world horrors in a masterful fashion.
This is a novel that deserves the widest possible audience and I hope it's the first of very many. An essential read in 2016.
writeramyshannon's review
4.0
This book is considered African Horror. I wasn't sure what that meant when I agreed to read this book. It is definitely a scary, edge-of-your-seat kind of book. I read a lot of books that are about different cultures, but this is my first African cultural book. I will continue to read more, especially by this author. I'm not afraid of terror or horror, and this book certainly delivers. A restless and sleepless spirit of a tormented boy. His little sister who is cursed. Very terrifying indeed.
novelbloglover's review
4.0
Title: The Sleepless
Author: Nuzo Onoh
Genre: Paranormal/Drama/Fantasy
Rating: ****
Review: I personally have never read African Horror so this is a completely new genre to me and was a very interesting experience. I loved the opening page it was so creepy and menacing and hinting at so many dark things to come and for fans of horror like myself it is exactly what we want to see. It complete sucked my into the writing and flying through page after page.
Overall the first chapter was absolutely captivating, there’s a ritualistic sacrifice of a child written the some horrific details and I just loved it. African Horror seems like my kind of reading and I will definitely be reading more by this author and this genre.
I was not keen on the fact that the father in this family is abused towards his youngest daughter and his wife and there is also a slight implication he sexually abused his older daughter – these are themes I don’t personally like – incest and abuse and he’s not afraid the take a birch whip to anyone who angers him or crosses him in a fowl mood.
Obele has a sort of psychic gift, she calls it Mother Voice and it has told her what has happened to her brother, she also sees Kene’s spirit as if he is reaching out to her. When she tells her parents as you can guess all it earns her is a whipping, but the look on her father’s face was priceless.
My favourite thing about this novel is it teaches you so much about the African traditions, superstitions and rituals which teaches you so much about the background of the novel without taking away anything from the novel itself, in fact it adds to it which is very rare in the literary world.
I also enjoyed the fact The Sleepless isn’t just the title of the novel they are actually characters in the book, but naming them would be a major spoiler so I’m not going to.
Another thing about this novel that really impressed me was religion plays a key role but does so without being boring or pretentious. I loved the twists and turns in almost every chapter constantly pushing and pulling you in a million different directions and guessing at what or who is coming for you next.
We see a lot of varied opinions of the aspect of religion and good and evil. I also liked the war within Obele as to whether Mother Voice is a demon or The Virgin Mary.
I absolutely loved how Onoh details the horrors of war and the how realistic the novel is even with its strong paranormal/fantasy elements. The ending was amazing and made for an amazing conclusion to a gripping horror novel, that I will definitely be recommending it to all my blogger friends.