Book: Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Length: 560

Format: eBook
Price: Downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: It's on my list.

Basic Premise: Twin sisters Olanna and Kainene grew up among the wealthy and privileged in Nigeria. When civil unrest turns into all-out war, the sisters and their significant others struggle to make sense of this new life and their roles in it.

My Take: 4 out of 10 (scale here)

First of all, I would take this book off every YAL list on which it appears. I suppose it's there because one of the three narrators is a young houseboy who journeys into manhood, but I don't consider this a story for young adults. It is very "adult" and explicit often times to the detriment of the story. Most of the time, when I hear there is a movie about a book I'm reading, I want to see it. This one is even free on Amazon and I still don't really want to watch it. It's rated R for "some violence and sexual content." If they used the word "some" they must have really trimmed both.

Aside from the violence and sex, the story didn't really move well. It felt disjointed and hollow. The author did a nice job developing characters, but the characters just weren't very likable. Maybe I'm being too harsh. But I will say that what I like about this book and books like it are the settings - the environment, the cultural backdrop, the place in history - and the way I feel it broadens my understandings of these countries and cultures. That part I LOVED. The rest...well, I'm just not a fan.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving review here
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer review here
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here