Book Review: When We Were Fireflies
- Amazing Grace L. Danso
- Sep 1
- 2 min read
Book Review: When We Were Fireflies
Author: Abubakar Adam Ibrahim 🇳🇬
Type of work (Genre): Novel
Number of pages: 404
Own or Borrowed: own, purchased from The Word Playce
Overall Impressions: I really enjoyed this book and story. I have not yet read one quite like it so it felt very fresh and original even though the central theme is an old concept: reincarnation. In this iteration, said reincarnation is triggered by forbidden love on the backdrop of various wars with the love stories not necessarily connected to the wars till the present day life being lived by the central character. I just really loved how he provided commentary on love and loss and the ways man made conflicts just rob Nigerian society and the world at large of the kind of peace and love we should all be afforded. This is one of the few books I have read so far where the central characters are Muslim and the first of such from an African writer. I really appreciated the insights it gave me into the faith, which is often the focus of negative propaganda globally. Islamophobia has and keeps robbing us of shared humanity. I particularly appreciated the way Ibrahim treated female characters in this work. He didn’t shy away from the ways patriarchy (including through religion) dehumanizes women but allowed us to see the women in the fullness of their humanity. The witty banter mostly came from them. They were also allowed to be villains.
Something that stood out: How the story was divided into sections headed by colors of the rainbow and how the story in each section reflected the qualities of its color.
Overall Rating: 🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋 (out of 5 fountain pens).
Recommend or nah: absolutely recommend! Go read it! Follow my @agsbookadventures 🤓📚IG & Facebook accounts dedicated to books & reading☺️ Also find me on TikTok via the handle @agsbookadventures.
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