Emily Vance Brown

by Akwaeke Emezi

4/5

I recently read Akwaeke Emezi’s poetry for the first time and loved it, so it’s no surprise I was a fan of their prose, too. Little Rot is intense, fast-paced, and filled with surprising twists and turns. I read it for a book club, and we all agreed that it would make a riveting action film should a screenwriter decide to tackle an adaptation. The plot of the novel takes place over the span of slightly more than 24 hours. For a piece that includes so many alternating characters and viewpoints, it’s surprisingly intricate and detailed without being convoluted with too many concurrent plots. My main issue with the story, and the reason it didn’t receive that fifth and final star, was that by the end of the novel, the characters did not seem to have grown or developed in any noticeable way; however, I recognize that Emezi did as much in regards to their characters as was probably possible within the time frame of the story. 

Overall, I really liked this book. I think it would be a tricky one to recommend to other readers because of the intensity of the subject matter—Emezi was not exactly light-handed on the graphic violence and sex—but I do think it was an impressive and incredibly well-written book.