All of a sudden, there's this book guy everybody seems to be talking about on TikTok and many other social media platforms. They say 'Ahmad Babangida is a green forest', 'I want an Ahmad Babangida for myself'. I was so curious to know what's with the Ahmad Babangida that everybody seems to be gushing over. For those who are familiar with the streets of booktok, bookstagram and the likes, it is very rare to see a Nigerian man gaining the hype for being a green flag.
I really wanted to know about Ahmad Babangida and how green a forest he was. There was nothing holding me back from reading it so I decided to do just that. And guess what? That thing I was looking for, I saw it. It was spread out in every chapter of this book. This book I'm about to review is a book by Fatima Bala titled Broken.
Broken is a 478 paged book that tells the love story of Ahmad and Faiza. Faiza, a girl who grew up with devout Muslims as parents, goes to Canada for her schooling. There, she meets Ahmad, the son of a family friend, who she sees as rude after not-so-nice first and second encounters. When they both sort out their misunderstandings, their attraction to each other begins to foster. Leading to a painful love story and the realization that their tough fates have been written from the start.
This book made me realize how much I had no idea about Islam as a religion. There were so many parts of the religion, detailed in this book. I don't know if there's a genre called muslim-romance but if there is, that exactly, is what this book is. It focused on how Faiza, the devout Muslim that she was brought up to be, struggled with exploring the new feelings that came with loving Ahmad and at the same time, avoiding sin. I read this book, and there was no way I didn't learn a thing or two about the religion. Author Fatima was so detailed in her writing about the religion and it made me appreciate her for being her and definitely not trying to fit her writing into a particular style or anything. I feel it was just her being her. And that itself, was awesome.
I'm not going to dwell on the hype about Ahmad because I'm not his biggest fan. Don't get me wrong. I liked him. I get why he is hyped. He's one of the best male characters to ever be written by a Nigerian woman so, he's definitely got points in my book. But I'm just not so big on his hype and I have no idea why that is. Ahmad carried the whole book. If he wasn't so intentional about Faiza, there really wouldn't have been much for me to like about the book. He made their love story as beautiful as it is, even with it's ugly parts.
As you must have guessed, I didn't like Faiza. The fact that she had the whole point of views in the book, yet she could not decide whether she should go all out for a man that went all out for her, or whether she would just stay waiting for her mom, aunt or friend to figure things out for her was so annoying. She was more annoying than being just boring.
I don't like leaving books unread halfway and that was what made me get to the best part of this book. The beginning wasn't so intriguing and I didn't like that. With the way the book started, you'd have thought this was just another love story where guy meets girl, they fall in love and their parents won't be in support because they've probably had history together. But it was way better than that. The conflict was much better than those I am used to in love stories. And I loved that because I saw it as my hard work paying off. Hardwork because I willed myself to continue reading even though the beginning didn't stick out to me.
I'll rate this book a 7/10. A beautifully crafted love story where the love interest (Ahmad Babangida) was written so flawlessly. I'll definitely recommend to readers but if you like books that grip you or rope you in from the start, this book might not be for you, unless you want to endure like I did. If you want to, you'll definitely be rewarded.
Thanks for reading
Image is a screenshot taken from my e-library.
Guyyy, my review literally said the same thing. I didn't like that girl. I found her indecisiveness and general character really annoying. I didn't even see why he liked her to be honest. It's like she had no personality, lol. But what is my own?
You get!!! It can't be just for her looks that he did all that? She wasn't even putting any effort in making the relationship work. Anyways, who are we to judge?
This book sounds like it could be popular in Indonesia. I don't read this type of novel but from what you reviewed, the story sounded so endearing. I definitely think this is a muslim romance and in Indonesia, this could be a big hit since a lot of things here are revolving around muslim romance 😄
Ohh, I agree with you. Since Indonesia is Muslim dominated, Muslim romance would thrive there too. And since the book is of that genre, maybe with time, it'll find it's way there.
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I understand your point about Faiza; sometimes protagonists can be frustrating when they seem indecisive. But it's great that, despite that, you persevered and found the story to become richer and more complex as it progresses. A 7/10 sounds reasonable, nice review!
Reading her was really frustrating. I'm glad I persevered. Thank you so much