One of my reading goals for 2025 is to focus more on my backlog instead of the shiny new releases. One of the books that has made it to several TBR’s by now – and yet again to my Winter TBR – is The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré. I think I have been wanting to pick up this novel for approximately three years now, especially since this won the award for best book for younger readers. No, these books don’t have to be young adult specifically, but according to a panel formed by the target audience it best matches the world of experience of readers aged 15-18. We can agree or disagree on this, but this award only sparked my curiosity. However, it took me a long time to pick up this book. Did I agree on many opinions in the end or am I the odd one out with an unpopular one?

About the book

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
Series: Adunni #1
Published by Dutton Books on February 4, 2020
Pages: 384
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, General fiction

The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same. Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will “break your heart and then put it back together again” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams…and maybe even change the world.

My review

Before reading

There are two reasons why I have been so reluctant to pick up The Girl With the Louding Voice. One of them is the popularity, the other one the language. The author created a special language for main character Adunni and this was partially the reason why I wanted to read this book in translation. On the other hand, I was a bit afraid of how this book would work out being translated. Would the language get lost or was it still good enough for the story? And was I able to still enjoy this reading experience? I’m always a little careful when authors decide to invent special languages for their characters, I’m usually not a fan of this. I therefore expected to have quite a tough time with this novel, although I enjoy reading books about different cultures.

Characters

This book tells the story of fourteen-year old Adunni, a Nigerian girl who is desperate to go to school and learn. However, after her moms dead, her dad is short on money and decides to marry Adunni off. This means the end of her school days and her possibilities of getting a good job, and marks the start of her life as a housewife. This makes her very unhappy, especially getting pregnant and withchild. After an incident, she is forced to flee her husband and village. She ends up in Lagos, in hopes for a brighter future. Unfortunately, she ends up in another household regime, as a slave. This still means she can’t go back to school. However, Adunni is determined to keep learning and fight for a place back in the school system. This determination is remarkable to see. From quite a naïve village girl, Adunni grows into a  fierce young women who stands up for herself and others. Along the way, she starts developing her English language skills, which gives her a louding voice. She is still so young, but has endured a lot for girls her age. Even though this makes her quite remarkable, it was hard for me to connect to Adunni. And this has nothing to do with the execution of the character, but everything with the thing I already feared, the writing.

Writing

Even though the writing is unique, I sometimes found Adunni’s language hard to understand. I think the translation into Dutch is to blame for this, at least partially. The translators did the best job they could, but if the book is written in alternative English, it’s hard to transfer it into Dutch and let the story make the same impact. I wasn’t sucked into this book until close to the end because of the language. This evolved alongside Adunni’s character. I just didn’t want to continue reading and was able to put the book aside a lot. The chapters were quite short, which was nice to see. The facts about Nigeria at the start of every chapter – which Adunni learnt along the way – were interesting as well. These facts were included from the halfway mark onwards, which was very logical in the light of Adunni’s growth. These facts were a nice addition to this novel.

Plot

Adunni is going through a lot in her young life. This provides a very tense atmosphere to the novel. Sometimes there’s room for hope, but this was subordinate to the dark and gloomy atmosphere. The events in this plot were shocking, as well as the themes. However, I’m afraid these are still reality for so many women in Nigeria, as the facts in the book state. Forced marriage, slavery and child trafficking are several of the themes Daré addresses in this novel. They all get their place in the story and I think this was more than enough. When Adunni meets Miss Tia, the environmental crisis gets addressed as well, this was a bit too much in my opinion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very intrigued by this book. The story is an important one to tell, but as I’ve stated before, I’m afraid it got mostly lost in translation.

Final thoughts

The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré is not an easy book to read. It deals with serious themes and uses graphic descriptions. However, Adunni’s character is a remarkable one. Personally, I couldn’t connect to the writing and this is probably because the alternative language the author invented for Adunni got partially lost in translation. I became pretty annoyed by it at some point. I therefore wasn’t able to get myself lost in this story, which nevertheless needs to be told. Do you want to read this book as well? I strongly recommend you to pick up an English version instead of a translated one, because the writing might get lost in translation despite the translators doing their best job they could.