It hurts my heart to give it only three stars, especially because it's a debut novel, but it just didn't get to me the way it should have. I did not like Belinda very much and I most liked the bits about Amma in London, which was only a relatively small part of the story. I would have liked to explore her character and her life more.

I really wanted to like this. But sadly it just didn't work for me.
The writing felt like it was dragging. I struggled to want to pick this up each day.
As much as this book spoke about important topics I also felt it was a little directionless at times. Which caused me to become lost and confused.

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I really wanted to like this book as it started well, two girls from the same origins but worlds apart, but somehow I couldn’t get into it, it just seemed a bit disjointed. Maybe it was the style of writing

I was hoping to enjoy this book as the cover is absolutely stunning, and I generally love books that original start off, or have strong ties to African countries as I normally find the setting and culture so beautiful and interesting to explore via literature. However the writing style with Hold just didn't capture me or suit my reading tastes at all.

There is a strange use of English used conversationally between the people in this book from Ghana, and I couldn't understand if this was, culturally, the way Ghanaian people would speak English or if the author was trying to do something. It was hard to read though, as it felt like it had originally been written in another language and then put through Google translate to transform into English. It wasn't nice to read and I felt it interrupted the flow of the story sometimes and made it stilted and awkward.

I know little of this author but was quickly interested by the summary and I'm glad the cover and summary caught my eye as it was a very enjoyable read.
Hold tells the story of Belinda and Amma, one who is the shining example of everything a good Ghanian housegirl should be and the other, the 'troublemaker' who keeps acting out. When Amma's parents meet Belinda they see her as the perfect guide for her rule breaking daughter. From then on, a story of privilege, social commentary of wealth and identity.
I do have to say the broken english bothered me a bit but overall, it was a very good book

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

I was looking forward to reading this book although the premise was good I found it long and the relationships more complicated than perhaps they needed to be

3 stars

It breaks my heart to give this book just 3 stars; it had so much potential.

Hold is a contemporary novel that revolves around a Ghanaian house girl named Belinda Otuo. A near-adult, she works for ‘Aunty’ and ‘Uncle’ as their housemaid. Her fellow house girl, Mary, is just a child, and Belinda sort of takes her under her wing, being her mentor, best friend, and big sister.

Meanwhile, Doctor and Nana, a wealthy Ghanaian couple that lives in London, has their own troubles. Their teen daughter Amma is acting out in school, and is undergoing depressive episodes. They reach out to their old friends in Ghana (Uncle and Aunty), who offer to loan out their house girl Belinda to the former, since Belinda is levelheaded, and is likely to restore Amma to her brilliant former self.

This Belinda moves to London to act as Amma’s housemate, and that’s how the story starts.

I think the first great thing about this book is that you don’t have all that many books about the life of a Ghanaian house girl. This is an #ownvoices book, and Donkor has shown us the grim reality — he showed it, rather than told it. What struck me the most is that while Aunty and Uncle are certainly not inhumane employers, they do look at Belinda as something that can be ‘loaned’, like she’s a book their friends can borrow.

Doctor and Nana (the ‘borrowers’) say Belinda should study for her GCSEs and are appalled whenever she cleans their house while staying in London — but they aren’t all that better — they’ve brought Belinda home for Amma the way people bring pets home to help their child. In many ways, they’re just as bad as Belinda’s employers.

At no point do they ask Belinda about what she wants, something that Belinda comes to realise as she becomes an independent thinker through her stay in London and her studies in her multicultural/all-ages GCSE classes.

Amma and Mary are the other two main characters, and Amma even gets her own POV. She’s a lesbian struggling to fit into the heteronormative Ghanaian society of London. She’s tired of her life, and while not a likeable character (bc let’s face it, compared to Belinda who was outcast in her village because of her mother’s profession, and then was essentially an indentured labourer, Amma has led a pretty entitled life), her struggles with coming out made it so easy to empathise with her. (Again, an #ownvoices narration.)

The duality of character Donkor has portrayed through Amma — everyone has good and bad in them; everyone has their own struggles — is something that I liked. It was intellectually stimulating.

Coming to the things I didn’t like that much.

The narration during Belinda’s POVs really bothered me. So Belinda has lived all her life in Ghana and is naturally more fluent in her mother tongue, Twi. That doesn’t explain why Belinda’s thoughts are written in broken English, and Amma (who’s lived in the UK all her life) has her POV in flawless English.

Imo, descriptions of what one sees and feels do not have languages. Belinda’s dialogues could have broken English, yeah? But her cleaning the sink with Cif needn’t be narrated in broken English. It just irked me.

The second thing that bothered me is that in the first part of the book, where Belinda is still in Daban, Ghana, all her conversations with her employers and Mary are ALL in broken English, with a few Twi phrases thrown here and there, even though it’s mentioned elsewhere that all these dialogues were in Twi. Why would all the Twi dialogues of all the Ghanaian characters, set in the heart of Ghana, be written as broken English?

This continues in the latter part of the book as well, once Belinda is back in Daban. The only noticeable difference is that her dialogues are posher, and she uses the word ‘like’ a lot (like most of us millennials are wont to do) — but I’m still flummoxed, bc all these dialogues, right from the ones with the cab driver to the ones with the hair dresser are all in Twi, right?

Another reviewer had mentioned the same thing (either on Goodreads or on Netgalley), about how the book feels like it was edited for a white audience. I agree with them wholeheartedly on this. As a POC and a WOC myself, I could understand what the other reviewer meant,

I think this book could have legendary if it had been edited properly, and if Donkor had maintained grammatically correct prose for a non-English speaker’s POV. This book was in many ways feminist, and addressed unsettling issues, and could have easily been a magnificent debut, considering it had a really good plot and structured character development.

I think given time and more independence in the editorial process, Donkor will write a novel that’ll be a 5 star read. Sadly, this wasn’t it, but I can see that potential in him as a writer. I hope he continues writing stories as deep and truly eye opening as this one.

Diclaimer: I got this book from the publisher via Netgalley free of cost, in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for giving me a chance to read this book.

I was sent this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am choosing to not continue with this book as I am more than halfway through and I am not finding it enjoyable.

I loved this book! A really interesting look at a culture I personally don't know anything about. Donkor writes speech phonetically which was a struggle at first, but then I quickly got the hang of it. I also loved how Donkor dips in and out of scenarios, bringing the two girls together.

I've read about a quarter of this and somehow it's just not engaging me. The writing and the characters are okay but it lacks momentum. DNF

This book was not for me. I found it difficult to engage with the story; I couldn't get on board with the broken English and, from my knowledge and from what I have read, I believe the representation of Ghanaian people in this novel is both unrealistic and a little insulting.

Almost a DNF for me (but we all know I find it VERY hard not to see a book through). A 1-star read, unfortunately.

‘You have to imagine. That’s how I told myself.’
‘Imagine what?’
‘Imagine that you are the kind of girl that can cope with it, even if you are not.’

Belinda knows how to follow the rules. She has learnt the right way to polish water glasses, to wash and fold a hundred handkerchiefs, and to keep a tight lid on memories of the village she left behind when she came to Kumasi to be a housegirl.

Mary is still learning the rules. Eleven years old and irrepressible, the young housegirl-in-training is the little sister Belinda never had.

Amma has had enough of the rules. A straight-A pupil at her exclusive South-London school, she has always been the pride of her Ghanaian parents. Until now. Watching their once-confident teenager grow sullen and wayward, they decide that sensible Belinda might be just the shining example Amma needs.

So Belinda is summoned from Ghana to London, to befriend a troubled girl who shows no desire for her friendship. She encounters a city as bewildering as it is exciting, and as she tries to impose order on her unsettling new world, Belinda’s phonecalls back home to Mary become a lifeline.

As the Brixton summer turns to autumn, Belinda and Amma are surprised to discover the beginnings of an unexpected kinship. But when the cracks in their defences open up, the secrets they have both been holding tight to threaten to seep out…

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Published now as Hold, for reasons unknown. I wanted this to be so much better than it was. Glimpses of the story starting to take off but it doesn't really go anywhere, despite the nice writing in places.

17-year-old Belinda is a Ghanaian housemaid, who is sent to London by her mistress as a companion for another teenage girl, Amma. Belinda leaves behind fellow maid, 11-year-old Mary. Belinda and Amma grow close until a revelation causes Belinda to question everything she’s been taught. The three girls struggle with their identities and the expectations placed on them, whether by parents, employers or society as a whole. An intriguing coming of age novel with plenty of unexpected twists.

Well, I've only gotten 5% into this book and I came to Netgalley to read other members' reviews in order to see if it was actually worth continuing or not, so it's safe to say that the beginning of the novel isn't particularly captivating. Anyway I've seen from another member's review that the girl who is struggling with her sexuality (who hasn't been introduced to me yet) goes on a date with a boy at the end of the novel, so I think I'll leave it here and not set myself up for disappointment if that's true.

The main reason I'm giving up after only 5% is that the characters don't seem believable or interesting. Also, this novel has confirmed that I hate it when male writers write female characters. The amount of references to Belinda's boobs is ridiculous in only the first 5%:

'She brought her ankles together, fixed her head-tie and straightened her dress so that it was less bunched around her breasts.'

'She yanked at a hair sprouting from her left, darker nipple, pulling it through bubbles. The root gathered into a frightened peak. She liked the sensation.'

'Belinda squeezed the remaining cedis into her bra, giving herself an uncomfortable, monstrous breast. The high-heels Aunty and Nana said made her feet ‘feminine’ pinched her toes and were more painful than stomach cramps.'

Lol what?

And this random description of two random women:

'They stood behind three nurses who had powerful bottoms and who passed the time by...'

Get ready for these nurses never to be mentioned again.

Not to mention our introduction to Mary is this weird scene where she talks about watching Belinda in the shower all the time, and grabs her breasts (I assume that's what happened):

'Mary shot up from beneath the covers and launched herself at Belinda’s chest. Belinda pushed her off and Mary lost her balance, fell onto the bed. ‘What is this? Are you a –? Are you a stupid –’ Belinda lifted the towel higher. ‘Grabbing for whatever you want, eh?’‘What you worried for?’ Mary arched an eyebrow. ‘I have seen all before. Nothing to be ashamed for. And we both knowing there is gap beneath shower door and I’m never pretending to be quiet about my watchings neither.'

Honestly I can't be bothered to find out how the author decides to write about queer female sexuality after the above passages.

Edit: I found out Donkor is actually gay and now I'm even more bewildered about the above quotes!

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

Hold is an intriguing story about identity, friendship and culture and the author's Ghanaian roots are use to good effect. An interesting debut that doesn't always hit the mark, but leaves a lasting impression.

Hold, later renamed as Housegirl, is a ‘coming of age’ novel of a girl, Bellinda who struggles between two world- Ghana and London. She is the ideal housemaid, knows her duties and performs them with perfection. Bellinda finds a sister in Mary- an 11-year-old who still can’t abide by rules.
But soon Bellinda is sent to London as a companion and friend to Amma. Bellinda misses Mary but her only hope at a decent life is to befriend Anna. As these two women start to unfold, a friendship develops between them and they realize that they need each other more than they thought, especially with their inner demons trying to gnaw them away.
The story is slow and is difficult to follow. I finally started to know what was going on after 25% of the story. I liked the characters, their diversity in class and well as opinions. The language, especially the ones with Ghanian dialect slowed me down a lot, and honestly, I found it unnecessary and somewhat annoying.
Overall, I liked the plot as it explored the friendship between teenagers and their struggles.

This book presented the Nigerian house servant's story through an interesting journey of literacy, nationality, and sexuality. The relationship between the three girls, Mary, Belinda, and Amma, was created really well and the friendships they had with each other was touching and sweet. The comments about the mix of Nigerian slang being confusing is similar to how i felt at the beginning of the book. However, as the story progressed, even if i didn't understand it, helped build up the identity and emotions of the scenes that are happening.

I really wanted to like this book but after attempting to get through it a couple of times, I have decided to DNF it. The main reason being the portrayal of Mary, Belinda, Okay basically all the Ghanaians. The broken English and sort of simple mindedness of the characters didn’t sit well with me especially given the time period in which the story is set. I just found it harsh and implausible. I was curious about Amma’s story and looked forward to keeping up with Belinda in London but in the end, I just have to accept that this story isn’t for me.
Thanks to the publishers for the ARC and I apologize for taking long to leave my review.