Wonderfully evocative of its Kenyan setting, this had so much symbolism in the initial pages that I struggled to follow along and keep hold of the narrative. It is beautifully written but isn’t for me, however the fable like prose will really grab some readers’ attention and give a moving look at a relatively unseen perspective.

A wonderful use of syntax so you really hear all the people speaking with their rhythms and vocabulary. For the full review, please go to https://at.tumblr.com/joebloggshere/things-they-lost-by-okwiri-odour-this-is-a-strange/rzdawk4lx5zq

In this book we meet Ayosa, a young girl who lives on her own most of the time while her mother travels for work. This book focuses on Ayosa’s friendships, her difficult relationship with her mother and the mystical world of African folklore.

I really struggled to get into this book, for me it was a difficult read. It’s quite dark and difficult to keep up with. Often the story jumps between past and present and I found myself reading paragraphs over again.

I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to the fantasy and mythology genre, but, I am widening my perspectives and so dar loving it. The author has done this brilliantly. The story is beautifully written, the characters come alive on the page, the settings pop and all characters have a believable voice. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This sounded fantastic, but it ended up being incredibly boring.
I struggled to make any form of connection with the story or the characters. It was a total slog to get through and I couldn't remember anything that happened when I finished.

Sadly this book didn't work for me but I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read it.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, but it was long-winded, a little pointless (albeit there was a moral message right at the very end) and the protagonist’s BFF was about the only true gem in the entire story.

Set in rural Kenya, “Things They Lost” centres around the life of 12-year-old Ayosa Ataraxis Brown. Born to a mother who’d rather not be, and without much mention of much else, we quickly learn why she labels herself as “the loneliest girl in the world”. Soon we learn a little more about her & are transported to a dual world of reality vs. fantasy, and telling the difference of similarities between.

The storyline fails to fully draw in the reader so differentiating between the real and other world becomes increasingly difficult to follow. The end makes up for it with a good ol’ African fable/moral message, but the journey there, I cannot be certain was worth the time.

Ayosa, the loneliest girl in the world, longs for friendship and love. She has a complicated relationship with her mother, Nabumbo Promise, whose love is ‘lukewarm at best’ and who often abandons her to be cared for by the fatumas (ghosts) in the attic.

For Ayosa, the boundary between the human world and the spirit world is permeable. She can see the secrets of her mother’s past and the body-snatching wraiths drag her into experiencing episodes of a dark and often violent, colonial past.

Ayosa finds solace in her companionship with Sindano, the owner of a visitorless cafe, Jentrix, the town’s herbalist and a burgeoning friendship with Mbui. Ayosa and Mbui find serenity in the natural world around them, the katydids, the flowers dripping with nectar, the healing plants and the river’s soothing yet tumultuous flow.

Oduor sends the reader into a rabbit hole of fantasy, magic and social commentary that increases in intensity the further you go, demanding that every word has your attention whilst you suspend belief in reality or linear time.

The debut novel sings with poetic prose, with notes of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater and Jennifer Nansubuga’s The First Woman chiming through. Oduor’s work is original, lively and a captivating read.

This was a beautiful book.

The book centres around Ayosa, a young girl who lives on her own the majority of the time as her mother, a photographer, travels. Ayosa’s life circles around her friendships, the difficult relationship with her mother and the mystical world of African folklore in which she lives.

I don’t have the words to describe how poetically lovely this novel is. I have read other reviews that have put it so much better than I could.

I would thoroughly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was given an ARC of Things They Lost in exchange for an honest review.
Packed full of myth and folklore, the novel is set in an alternative reality where everyday life is not always as it seems. The protagonist spends a lot of her time remembering and collecting things that others have discarded or simply forgotten. Spell-binding and enriching from start to finish.

Ayosa is a lonely girl, but she is also a girl who understands the power in being lonely. Living on the outskirts of a Kenyan village Ayosa grapples with her loneliness, her strained relationship with her mother, and how she can forge her own path.

While I did find the writing in this book to be beautiful and unique, ultimately not a whole lot happened (even by literary fiction standards) and so it struggled to hold my interest for any extended periods of time. It just felt like I was being thrown from one scene to the next for the majority of the narrative. Also, though this might have been an e-arc formatting issue, there were no chapter breaks and no quotation marks to denote dialogue (this I would not mind but there was also no separation of any sort between dialogue and everything else which made it a bit difficult to get through, again though this may simply have been an e-arc issue).
The plot seemed to struggle to move forward, along with our character's development, it was hard to get a grip on-always one step forward, two steps back which got frustrating. Then, after a slow build up the ending somehow felt rushed, as if it wasn't decided until the last minute, which made for an unsatisfying finish.
I did enjoy the exploration of Ayosa's relationships with Mbiu, Sindano and Jentrix, I found them to be nuanced and full of conflicting emotions which are fun to explore. However, despite being the central focus for a lot of the narrative, her relationship with her mother grew tiresome and repetitive fairly quickly.
Although it did take me a while to get used to and immerse myself in Oduor's writing style, once I did it was largely enjoyable in its flow and stark uniqueness. It lent itself nicely to the kind of story being told- lots of visceral, almost surreal imagery and uncomfortably close observations of the natural (and supernatural) world and the ugly side of human nature.

While I can appreciate the beauty of the writing, the pacing and characterisation issues took from my enjoyment of this book, in the end I think it just wasn't quite the book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for my e-arc of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

i liked the premise but i found the execution somewhat disjointed. still i am sure many other readers will feel differently and oduor clearly is a promising author.

This book wasn’t really my thing. I struggled to get into it - it’s far too character driven for me, and felt a lot more focussed on the journey than on any destination. I couldn’t connect with the characters and I didn’t understand what was happening for the most part. What I did enjoy was Ayosa’s relationship with Mbiu and as their relationship developed, I found myself more interested in their story and thought their sisterhood was well developed over the course of the book.

I found this novel very death-centric and quite dark, with a clear focus on sisterhood, mothers and daughters, loneliness and isolation. I certainly haven’t read anything like this before and the writing was good, just quite a different and unusual style. The lack of chapters and the continuous jumping from present to past, from now to some unknown amount of time later, was hard to keep up with. It had a stream of consciousness sort of style to the writing, but chopped up with the recollections of the past.

This was quite a literary read, the sort of book I can imagine being nominated for awards as I’m sure the interesting narrative style, obscure fantasy elements and dark themes will appeal to many.

3.5 stars
Whilst fantasy isn't my go-to genre, the Kenyan folklore weaved in throughout the story actually made this a beautifully written and compelling read (at the beginning). Although it was written in the 3rd person. Okwiri Odour managed to perfectly capture the innocence and naïveté of the young Ayosa, whilst also creating complex characters haunted by generational trauma. The use of a small village setting added to the connection with the characters.
However, this book requires a lot of attention and disappointingly I found around halfway through the book, I started to lose interest and didn't reach for the book as much. The ending also somehow felt rushed whilst also feeling dragged out.

🇰🇪Things They Lost - Okwiri Oduor

Things they lost is a story of magic, family and mystery set in Kenya. The story focuses on a lonely girl, Ayosa, who lives in a small African village. She has few friends, and these few friends at the Fatumas who live in the roof, a cafe owner who no one talks to and the Jolly-Anna birds. This is until she meets Mbui. However, she is still fixated on her Mother who comes and goes without warning leaving Ayosa often fearing for her well being.

I initially found this book difficult to get into, but I think that was more to do with the poor formatting (which removed all chapters) on Kindle than the actual book. Once I was able to read the book without the formatting issues it was a really gripping read. The book jumps about quite a bit which did make it difficult at times for me to follow along with what was happening but I feel that added to the mystery and magic of the book. It almost symbolised the flakeyness of the mother and the loss Ayosa feels when her mother leaves.

I absolutely loved the style of writing that Oduor used, and I feel that if I read this a second time I'll find amazing passages that I missed the first time. The passages I found already made me question what I'd read and quite often I found myself rereading parts because it was written so beautifully but also so mysteriously that I wasn't sure what was happening.

I can’t remember how this book came to my attention but I’m glad I read it. I didn’t love it but the writing is really beautiful and haunting.
It took a while to get used to it. Not knowing what exactly was going on but yet feeling the urge to read on. Having very blurry lines between magical realism and reality, it left me a little confused at times, especially while the story unfolded. I was drawn to the setting though, the river, the marsh, the house. The storytelling is absolutely flawless and made it a really unique experience. I was rooting for Ayosa by the end of it. The poor creature…
It will not be for everyone. It’s one that slowly creeps up on you and once you embrace the confusion, it’s both addictive and mesmerising.

3.75/4⭐️

Thanks to @netgalley and @oneworldpublications for this proof in return for my honest review. Things They Lost is out April 14th.

I coveted this book as soon as I saw the front cover and I was so thankful that I was granted the chance to read it. Omg this book was incredible. It is so beautifully written and so poignant full of vivid descriptions and rich imagery that made me feel like I was in the pages too. Full of magic and shrouded in mystery it really is a great read.

This book hooked me immediately - Oduor writes so evocatively. The story was at once relatable - with its exploration of complicated mother/daughter relationships and the bonds between friends - and completely fantastical, almost mythical. I could lose myself for hours in the world she has created. My only criticism (no spoilers here) is that it ended quite abruptly. I like an unresolved storyline (I’m all for bold choices), but I’d become so invested in the characters’ stories that I wish there’d been more of a resolution.

A story of love and loneliness. Beautiful and amazing debut. Ayosa lives in a small African town under the shadow of her here-today-gone-tomorrow mother, but one day she meets a friend who could change everything.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

4+ stars

An absolute delight of a book,that's full of mystery and magic.
Full of strong females,that also happen to be more than a bit mad.
Full of stories so strange,I had to reread a lines a second time to make sure I'd read it right.
Some one liners that actually made me laugh out loud.
And made me want yo start most of my sentences with "because".

Excellent.