Stephen's Reviews > The Other Hand

This book needs to be detained and shipped home to a small English town in Devon..

A friend recommended this book to me so I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I could not.
I found it sappy, trite, unengaging, shallow, sappy and uninteresting. The only reason I finished it was in the hope it would get better. Fail!

I didn't care for the characters and times I found Sarah, Lawrence and especially Andrew to be creepy (partly because their portrayal is so plasticky). This was like a Mills and Boon episode of the The Refugee. So sentimental that I puked in my mouth a little.

The Nigerian character, Little Bee - how can we believe you? It seemed like a cut and paste job of every cliche about African women. The men they come. The men this and the men that. My beautiful sister this, my "humble, innocent always knows how to make me feel better" sister that. The African man as the lecherous pig. I the noble African girl taking it all in with dignity and bravery. Dear god!!

Sarah the guilt stricken white woman who will fight for justice! Will protect the lost litle African girl.. Weh!!

Read this if you like cliched pompous English twits. Brave, strong African women that are totally contrived and unrealistic. Irritating kids that need a good smack (but not to have their grammar corrected every sentence. Sarah you deserve a smack on the bottom for that annoying habit.) Evil incarnate African men.

Oh, and the last thing, and possibly the most irritating device ever used. The little tease "of that day on the beach". It all changed that day on the beach. Looking back at that day on the beach. Trying to suppress the memories of that day on the beach. NO! Not clever! Bringing up "that day on the beach" twenty times before finally divulging what happened half way through the book did not pique my interest. In fact it made my want to draw a big circle on the wall and hit my head repeatedly against it.