Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana is a series of short stories about men and women living in an apartment in NYC struggling to make rent, stay safe and survive. The stories are interconnected since all of the characters live in the same building but each story offers different perspectives on the challenges they face. This all sounds like something I would love to read!
Unfortunately, the writing style really bothered me. First, there was a significant number of spelling and grammar errors due to colloquialism. I'm not against an author using the vocabulary of a particular group of people and I, as a white Canadian elementary school teacher, definitely do not speak the same way as some of the characters in this story. That being said, there were a lot of words spelt incorrectly or substituted with another word that sounds similar but does not have the same meaning. I get what the author was trying to do, but it made it challenging to read and comprehend. Additionally, there was no proper formatting for dialogue, and a lot of 1 sentence paragraphs. It was at times hard to know if the main characters were describing a situation or actually having a conversation with someone else. It just took a lot of details away from the story and I think some of the ideas were lost due to my concentration being focused on deciphering what the author was trying to say.
I think that the themes and storylines are really interesting and that many people will really enjoy this book when it is published (August 16, 2022). If you enjoy interconnected short stories, fictional stories about low income areas and don't mind some grammar issues, I think this is definitely a great book for you! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this novel!
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