Genre Fiction.

Blurb “On her deathbed, Leona seeks forgiveness by confessional. Dastardly as the sin is, it is an act of love, loyalty, disobedience, and perceived fairness. How did she get here, where she, an internationally renowned model, is forced to kill her father-in-law to avenge her mother’s death? Set against a background of real events, Colours of Hatred is a complex web of plots detailing a woman’s journey from childhood through the fire and anvil of love, loss, betrayal, lust, and duty.”

Dialogue Written in English with smatterings of Igbo.

Themes Love, Revenge, War and Betrayal.

Editing Some errors.

Plot Leona is the only child of a Nigerian man, James and a Sudanese woman, Mary living in Sudan. Her idyllic childhood is shattered by the actions of rebels which forces her family to flee to Nigeria to escape death. In Nigeria, her parents gradually become strangers living together and James goes on to marry two other wives who bear him four sons. Following the death of Mary, Leona is convinced by James to revenge Mary’s death but things go awry afterwards.

Today’s review is a day later than scheduled and is a solo review by Lady B.

What worked? The Colours of Hatred is a fictional story set against a background of real events in Sudan and Nigeria. It’s narrated in the first person by the protagonist, Leona. The story unfolds from her perspective as a child growing up in Sudan and later, Nigeria where her family flees to to escape death.

It explores the political history of both countries and so, you learn about the civil war in Sudan, the culture and socio-economic issues in the country as well as the similarities between Sudan and Nigeria. As someone who didn’t know that much about Sudan, I enjoyed reading about their way of life and I liked the fact that though there was ongoing civil unrest/war in Sudan, the book focused on how it affected the day-to-day lives of the people and not the fighting itself.

I also liked the twist at the end though it would have read better had it been followed to a logical conclusion.

What didn’t work? Sadly, this book didn’t work for me. I found the dialogue stilted and the narration was confusing as it went back and forth between the past and the present in a disjointed manner.

I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters. They didn’t feel real to me. The motivations of their actions were weird and not relatable.

The story didn’t ring true and there were gaps in the story for example, I wanted to know how Leona’s family escaped the rebels in Sudan. I also wanted to know how Agnes was able to get to Leona.

Finally, I thought the end was unsatisfactory. Obinna tried to offer an explanation for the storyline leading to the end but it just ended up introducing things which I couldn’t reconcile with the body of the story.

Number of pages 335.

Publisher Parresia Publishers Ltd.

Damage $9.35 on Amazon Kindle.

Rating 5.5/10.

Colours of Hatred is available on Amazon.

Have you read Colours of Hatred? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.