2 out of 4 stars
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Chioma’s Diary is a young adult novel by Gerald Chukwu. The story follows Chioma through her teenage years in which she endures many hardships. At the very beginning, we learn that Chioma has been raped by a classmate and has become pregnant as a result. Her father is a very proud man, and his reputation is everything to him. So he deals with this insult to his daughter by marrying her off to the man who raped her at only 16 years of age. She lives with his family during the pregnancy and birth of the precious daughter that results from this tragedy.
While this story starts off with the rape of a young girl, I would classify it more as a Cinderella story. The book is not so much about the rape as it is about her life with the boy’s family as a result. They aren’t very nice to her, and she endures many hardships at their hands. This type of hardship either breaks someone or makes them stronger. The book shows us how Chioma deals with this suffering.
This novel was very difficult for me to review, because there were so many good and bad points. It left me with very mixed feelings. I appreciated that the author did not go into too much detail about the rape as this is a young adult novel. I felt that it would be appropriate for older teenage readers and even bring up topics that need to be discussed at this age.
Chioma’s Diary was enjoyable to read, and I really related to the main character, Chioma herself. I felt her heartache, pain, and joy. The problem for me came with the character Louis, the boy who raped her. At the beginning of the story, he is portrayed as a bully; as someone who is constantly trying to attack Chioma. After the rape, it seems that he turns his life around too quickly. I suppose that it is possible that this would happen, but it didn’t seem very realistic to me, and it honestly left me with a bitter taste in my mouth towards Louis.
I also had a problem with the way Mr. Chukwu handled some of the advances towards Chioma when she was living in Louis’ house. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but it almost felt to me that the author was too stereotypical in his treatment of women in this manner. I don’t think Mr. Chukwu was blaming Chioma, but as a woman, I was put off with the way these advances were handled in the storyline.
The last thing I really need to cover about this story is the setting and language. The story takes place in Africa, which becomes clear towards the middle of the book. I think the story would be better served with more of an introduction to the setting of the novel as that makes a difference in how the whole situation is handled especially when it comes to rape. Since it takes place in Africa, I’m aware that the language will be different than I and others like me are used to, however, it was very clear that the book was written by a non-native speaker of English. Aside from this, there were common errors such as missing words and grammatical mistakes. For example, the phrase “…carrying a pregnancy at teenage.” I think the author meant, “…carrying a pregnancy as a teenager.”
As I stated earlier, this book was difficult to review and even more difficult to rate. I believe that this has the makings of a good story, but in order to be really good, it would require a rewrite by the author. Therefore, I rate Chioma’s Diary a 2 out of 4 stars. I was able to relate to Chioma, but some of the scenes where advances are made towards her need to be reconsidered. I also think that the author needs to reevaluate Louis. While I’m not a writer, I think that he would be more believable if we were able to view his change of heart while it was happening. Not only that, but also the errors in the book need another round of editing. All in all, that makes this book simply okay.
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Chioma's Diary
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