*Currently listening to Amaka – Peter Clarke*
I’m always glad when friends recommend books for me and I enjoy them, it means they know what I like (I guess).
I heard Kayode (@codedreader) speak the praises of Easy Motion Tourist and when he suggested I get it and would love it, I did and truly I love it.
I like the character development and much more…
Here are the things I think about Easy Motion Tourist!
“Let me get this, a girl tells you she doesn’t want talk to you, and of all the possible explanations you think she must be in a bad mood?”
Rating: 5/5
Format: Paperback
Author: Leye Adenle
Date published: May 1, 2016
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 327
SYNOPSIS
Guy Collins, a British hack, is hunting for an election story in Lagos. A decision to check out a local bar in Victoria Island turns out badly- a mutilated female body is discarded close by and Collins is picked up as a suspect.
In the murk of a hot, groaning and bloody police station cell, Collins fears the worst. But then Amaka, a sassy guardian angel of Lagos working girls, talks the police chief around. She assumes Collins is a BBC journo who can broadcast details of the city’s witchcraft and body parts trade that she’s on a one-woman mission to stop.
*Currently listening to Dido (Platinum collection)
MY THOUGHTS
A delightful read and there’s nothing like reading a book whose setting is familiar to you like Lagos is to me (a little familiar).
*Currently listening to see you when you’re 40 – Dido*
First, Guy is like every foreigner who comes into Nigeria, curious, I like to think that they’re too curious for their own good and it gets them in trouble. And this same curiosity landed Guy in deep shit but then if he hadn’t being curious he wouldn’t have met smart ass Amaka.
Amaka was actually too stubborn for my liking at one point; I was constantly rolling my eyes at some statements and was thinking “yo, chill mami, no need to talk smack”.
*Currently listening to Mary in India – Dido*
I liked all of the characters, at some point I felt for Inspector Ibrahim though, the good man hadn’t slept a wink because he’s trying to find some killers while ensuring the safety of the island folks (cue insert rolling eyes emoji).
A lot of the things Leye wrote in this book mostly about how the Lagos folk live were/are true. The segregation, the need for the rich to always feel safe in their secluded area whilst others can deal with whatsoever comes their way is sickening sometimes, if not always but then humans are very weird beings.
There comments on the Police system in Nigeria and one sentence/quote caught my attention in this book; “the case of Okafor Bright Chikezie lingered in the classification of ‘awaiting trial’, a concept used by the Nigerian police when they don’t want to let a suspect go to court or go free” and this is how the police system works.
Or do we address the issue in the book where prostitutes were all arrested, unlawfully, might I add and couldn’t leave especially if they couldn’t buy their way out, some of whom have to resort to giving their bodies as payment.
*Currently listening to Thank you – Dido*
Now before anyone comes at me saying “but they give their bodies out na” I’d like to say ‘take a bloody back seat and listen’. We’re quick to judge people and whatever situations they are in, forgetting that something or someone might have put them there. Yes these women give their bodies, but for them it is a source of livelihood, so imagine if you sell clothes and someone wants you to give them some clothes for free, won’t you give that person a bitch slap across the face? Yeah I would too, now therein lays their situation.
I already knew there was a book two (which I didn’t get) but I didn’t know how everything would be connected but alas, Leye linked them up and the end was shocking, I actually exclaimed “what the actual fuck”.
The twist also in the story was one I didn’t expect and one I won’t spill till you read this amazing book.
It was an exhilarating read for me, enjoyed it, can’t wait to read book two title “When Trouble Sleeps” and yes I’d totally recommend this book to anyone who would love to delve in Lagos city crime.
Have you read Easy Motion Tourist? Do you plan to read it? Share your thoughts with me!
ALL MY LOVE!
Bookish Igbo Girl 