I N C L U D E S A F F I L I A T E L I N K S
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Title: Praise Song for the ButterfliesAuthor: Bernice L. McFadden
Published: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 264
Rating: 4/5
Summary:
Nine-year-old Abeo Kata is living a comfortable and happy life in West Africa, but when misfortune comes upon her family, they decide to send her off to a religious shrine to serve as religious atonement for the crimes of their ancestors.
Review:
This was a moving and heartbreaking book.
I was immediately pulled into this book the minute I started reading it, and I love our main character from the first moment I met her. Following her through the events of this book was fascinating, horrifying and engrossing. I also really like that this book opened by eyes to something I didn't even know existed, which is ritual servitude (which is a form of slavery), and it's shocking to learn that this wasn't outlawed until the late 1990's. Even though this is a fiction account, it gives us a glimpse of what these people may have suffered through.
I thought the writing in this is good and it's very economical; the writing style isn't flowery or overly descriptive, it's very to the point. I feel like this worked really well with this story, although I do wish the book had been longer, as I would've loved to know more.
My only slight snag with this book, which is why I've given it a 4 stars instead of 5, is that I found the ending to be a little unsatisfactory and I feel like it didn't really suit the story that well. The book didn't feel anything close to cliché until the very end, which was disappointing. I'd still say this is 100% worth the read though, because everything else was excellent.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
