An impressive first
Geraldine Iheme’s
‘Disfigured Emotions’ takes us through four simultaneous stories told
in alternating chapters. The first is about Diggy, a young man in the
university who discovers and tries to deal with the betrayal of his
girlfriend, Shari. On a night that they are supposed to have a
rendezvous, he discovers her in what he takes as an intimate embrace
with one of his best friends.
The second tells
the tale of Philip Junior, an eight-year old that is physically
abandoned by his mother and thereafter emotionally by his father. In
Philip Junior’s story, we also get to meet his babysitter, Embu, who
runs away from a bad past and then later has to deal with being
abandoned herself by her boyfriend.
The third story
centres on 12-year-old Stella, who progressively feels isolated from
her family made up of a spendthrift mother, her self-absorbed sister,
and her regularly-absent father.
The final sory
focuses on four characters, Chief Emenaju, Mr. Zakili, Kamaru and
Salame; all members of an underworldly gang that specialises in
kidnapping and dismembering young women.
By alternating the stories, Iheme instils suspense into the entire book which helps to make it a pleasant read.
However, at the end
of the book where the different stories converge, as they must, the
suspense suddenly falls flat and the entire tale subsequently becomes
predictable.
Also, the
revelation is over-told. Still, the author reveals a great imagination
which shows her potential for becoming a good storyteller if she takes
time out to train herself.
With its dark
undertone of murder and mystery, the book could have easily been
described as a thriller but with the heavy use of melodrama, it comes
across more as a “bestseller” in the style of Danielle Steele or
Barbara Taylor Bradford (obvious inspirations for the author).
This is a basic
flaw of the book that reveals the lack of proper story editing and
direction. It is sort of like watching an eagle hover above the ground
rather than soaring off into the skies.
In spite of the
flaw, Iheme’s first effort is an impressive one. Hopefully, the
potential which she has displayed would be better harnessed and
reworked into a more professional fare by better editors and publishers
in subsequent works.
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