Date Read: December 27th 2016
Published: December 18th 2016
Publisher: Marcelle Mateki Akita
Pages: 63
The Blurb
Follow the stories of five young characters who try to make sense of loss, sex and sexuality in Lizard & Other Stories. Marcelle Mateki Akita explores how topics such as broken family and romantic relationships, sexual violence and masturbation impact a young girl and woman’s development. The collection’s short stories and flash fiction focus on girls and women of Ghanaian and mixed heritage. Written in an imaginative and sobering style, Lizard & Other Stories will unsettle and surprise you.
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Review – ★★★ (3 stars)
How cute is the cover art of Lizard & Other Stories? The beads are truly attractive! Lizard & Other Stories is the good debut of short stories by reader, researcher and co-founder of Afrikult. (a literary platform that discusses, explores and celebrates the diversity of African literature) – Marcelle Mateki Akita. The collection consists of five stories that focus mainly on girls and women of Ghanaian or mixed heritage. The stories in this collection are vivid, bold and told in a calm manner. Once I started reading, I was drawn into Marcelle’s comfy, calm writing style, which allowed me to get to know the characters at relatively good paces. Some issues explored in this collection are: coming of age, religion, family, sexuality, (domestic) violence, naivety and betrayal.
What makes this collection special is the ambiguous nature of all the stories. If you read this collection more than once – which I highly encourage, you will realize that there are various interpretations and extra, juicy details you probably missed during the first reading. When I got the chance to discuss Lizard & Other Stories with Marcelle during Christmas break, I realized I interpreted the stories, especially the final one, entitled Kwesi, in a completely different way than she did. It takes talent to pull that off, even if it’s never a writers’ intention to give stories various meanings. Another thing that’s great about this collection is the unpredictability of the stories. I felt really cozy while reading the first story, entitled Ama, until the story took an unexpected turn and left a sour taste in my mouth. From the way the stories commence to their finality are polar opposites, which was refreshing!
I would’ve been more satisfied with these stories if the characters were developed a little further for readers to fully understand their actions. Also, some passages in this collection seemed overly descriptive, which isn’t my preference when reading short stories and flash fiction. But I must say, the vivid descriptions certainly allow one to picture exactly what is being observed, which was appreciated.
If you want to indulge in bold, unpredictable stories written in a calm voice, definitely look into reading this collection! I eagerly look forward to Marcelle’s future projects – a novel soon, maybe? Pretty please?
Special thanks to Marcelle, for the free copy of Lizards & Other Stories, in exchange for an honest review 🙂
To get a feel of her writing, check out Marcelle’s story that was published by AFREADA last year – Cassava’s Finest
Read more of Marcelle’s work on her website! She posts wonderful musings of the mind and soul every Monday and 100 word stories every Wednesday.
★★★ (3 stars) – Good book. I recommend it, I guess.
Purchase Lizard & Other Stories on Amazon
African Book Addict! 
Darkowaa, you’re so funny – you guess you recommend it? I think your review highlights enough merits. When you say that the endings are polar opposites to the beginnings of these stories, I wonder does it seem contrived, or organic?
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Hey Leslie :). From the criteria of the rating system I use, 3 stars is ‘good book. I recommend it, I guess’ – I wasn’t trying to be funny haha. The polar opposites is organic, and that’s what made it a refreshing read! I wasn’t blown away by the collection, but it’s a very good debut – in my opinion :). Its hard to honestly review the work of someone you know *sigh*
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You’re right – it IS hard to review the work of someone you know, and especially when you aren’t blown away, yet, I think you did a good job of it🙂.
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*sigh* thanks Leslie
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That definitely is a beautiful cover! I’d be tempted to get it based on that alone, but your review makes it sound fantastic – especially as I really enjoy vivid descriptions!
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Hi there. Then you should definitely get a copy!
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