Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola

Welcome Back, Booklovers.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC from Headline Publishing of Love in Colour for an honest review. It releases in the UK on August 20th and releases in the US next year.  Now I know in the past I've said I'm not the biggest fan of retellings but this anthology intrigued me because it includes retellings of West African folklore as well. 

The first story is called Oshun and is inspired by the Yoruba river goddess and her relationship with Shango, god of thunder and lightning. While I had heard of them I'm not too familiar with their story. In Trinidad Shango is a religion that incorporates elements of Yoruba religion as well as spiritual baptism. And there was a bit of a stigma against some of their rituals that several family members have talked about. Having never really looked deep into their story this was a nice gateway. 

The next story is Scheherazade which is very loosely inspired by the storyteller from 1001 Arabian Nights. This story didn't leave much of an impression on me. I felt like it just moved along from scene to scene but I didn't feel for this one. 

The third story Psyche is based on the story of Psyche and Eros but set in the corporate fashion magazine world. In the story they navigate the workplace with Eros's sister Venus as Psyche's tyrannical boss.  I thought it did a good job telling the story of an office friendship blossoming into more.

The next story is Attem. Attem seduces King Offiong to settle her parent's debts. The King is a cruel man however she knows how to stroke his ego and get more free reign to move about the city compared to the other wives. While she is out in the marketplace she spots Ituen and soon invites him to her chambers. I wouldn't really classify this as a love story. More like a lusty entanglement. It did inspire me to look up the original myth Ituen and the King's Wife.

Yaa is a story about a young professional in a relationship that's more of a convenience. He's old money, she's new money and they run in the same circles so it makes perfect sense for them to be together. But does she actually love Kofi? And why is she putting up with his bullshit? Are his connections really worth it? And what about the relationship she left behind? This was the most real feeling of all the stories. It was inspired by The Princess' Wedding.

The next story, Siya is about a warrior woman defending her home Wagadou from The Snake Man. Though Siya wants to put of a wall of defense and remain the strong unnerving lead at all times Maadi pushes her to let her guard down. This story felt very lengthy to me and I didn't quite feel the chemistry between this couple. The descriptions of them coming together were very wordy too and the language felt less poetic then it's intention. This is based on a lesser known Ancient African Civilization called the Soninke. 

Nefertiti is a re-imagining of the Queen herself as a notorious gangster running a gentleman's lounge that also serves as a hub for anti-government activity and trains women to be guerrilla warriors. This was my favorite story in the anthology. It was paced well and just the right length. And unlike some of the stories it showed more than it told and I was entranced in the story. 

Naleli is a story about a girl learning to love herself again and be comfortable in her own body despite it's imperfections. She suffers from vitiligo and her peers do nothing to ease her pain often comparing her to a cow. The romance was sweet and I loved the overall theme and self love and friendship that was present.

Zhinu is a rising musician with an overbearing momanger determined to make her a superstar. It is based off a story called The Cowhead and the Weaver Girl.  It reminded me of Beyond the Lights since Zhinu is a manufactured popstar singing the sexualized music she doesn't want to sing vs her own original music.

Thisbe is a Thisbe and Pyramus retelling set in modern times. This one was too heavy on the pop culture references for me and I found myself being pulled out of the story. The length also didn't help because for me it droned on.

New Tales Tiara is about Tiara who runs a popular advice based Twitter account and has currently written a memoir. She reflects on a past love who is back in town. She compares herself to the woman he hooked up with after her. She remembers how they pulled apart from each and the directions their careers went in after. How they're still connected through their best friends who are in a relationship together. I didn't really care for this story either because it felt like for them to work out everything had to be on her terms with no real compromise.

Orin takes place in Bixton on a Friday night where our main characrer is on the date from hell. This was another story of modern love in the age of social media where sliding into the DMs on Instagram in the way to link up. 

And to conclude the anthology we have Alagomeji which is an original story based on our author's parents. 

This anthology switched from stories that felt contemporary to stories that felt like fantasy. While the overall theme was love the tone of some stories was vastly different than the tone of other stories. In some the romance was strong while in some the friendship was stronger. Some stories clicked with me more than others. I found her retellings of myths to be strong additions than her originals. I'm not a big fan of too many pop culture references and slang so the ones that were heavy on the 2020 slang and references weren't my favorite. Some of those read like an article of  a Twitter thread.  It was nice to read an anthology form the UK perspective for once and from the British Nigerian perspective.