Unfinished

 

When something is touted as an epic, when the characters are said to be heroic, I guess I expect something different. 

I didn't like this book. It had been on my shelf in its plastic shrink wrap for about a year and I kept glancing at it guiltily, before moving on to something else I wanted to read. 

Then this year, I decided, to hell with it, and picked it up. But although I made a good start, I found it difficult to sink into. I understand that the characters have grievances, but it still kicked when Kojo destroyed the birthday cake of the German girl whose birthday party they were invited to. Or when Maya was rude and contemptuous of her teacher who spoke to her in English and fumbled around trying to be politically correct. 

But the worst disappointment was how the story petered out without any real conclusion. 

Maya is cheated by the bad white man she barely liked. She should have known better. In fact, she did. But she went along anyway, bought into his scheme, did all the work and got sidelined, then kicked out.

Was that how it was supposed to end? For you to see why all this anger was justified and then...what else? 

The quest abandoned?