DONT JOIN command must be obeyed (the book review) <<<< GRAB YOURSELF A COPY

 The novel, Don’t Join is the first short story book published and written by Azubike A. Ahubelem. It is about a young intelligent man named Uche and his experience as a University student living in Nigeria, and how peer pressure can stands out as a choice rather than a forceful influence. The novel starts off as intriguing and therefor luring the reader into the story.  While reading the book, I found myself on the edge of my seat, eager to know what would be revealed in the next chapter. The style of the book is narrative and not only does it educate us into the life of Uche, but also it causes the reader to take a step back and reflect about the world today on how some students live their lives in Universities be it in Africa or Overseas. If you are into romance and action thriller, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.

My favourite character from the book is Uju, a young beautiful girl with beautiful eyes and in every way perfectly capable to seducing any man she wanted. I love her because even though she is beautiful, she is humble, caring and loving. Throughout the story, I got to see how falling in love can change ones perspective forcing them to compromise, break boundaries and go against their natural instincts and in this case Uju was a perfect example. In between chapters we not only get to see her changing, but also we get to see her grow, becoming tough and showing characteristics of a lady capable of taking chances for her man in spite of difficult circumstances.  

Uju and Uche’s relationship was just inspiring regardless of what had happened with Joe and the gang. It was just beautiful in every way and revealed the different margins of how males and females act when in a relationship, and plus they seemed perfect for each other, but then again what is perfection?

However, there was another female that I found difficult to resist and she is named Suzy. She is described as more beautiful, tougher, and more courageous than Uju. In my own words I would personally say she comes across as a trained snake that is loyal to its master and can strike at anytime when threatened. Suzy created tension in the story line and challenged Uche in the commitment in his relationships. The end result from these indirect challenges I must add, was pretty much surprising and hence made me wonder how many guys would actually go ahead with Uche’s decision. Such scenes were written very well in relation to tension, mystery and sadness. As the reader I felt captivated by such scenes, keeping in mind that the book is also funny, when looking at how naïve some of Uche’s friends were in certain situations. A good example is a character named “12 Seconds”. He seemed to be bit too brutish and comical. The stories he enjoyed telling sounded like something straight out of a SIN CITY comic book. Although he was fun to read about I couldn’t help thinking he was just a mere display of testosterone and machismo.

The writer also made it very difficult for the reader not to care about the main character. I found myself understanding his feelings and experiences. Such situations kept me tossing and turning on each chapter. In addition, the setting of the story in terms of chapter arrangement follows itself pretty well. Each chapter has a subtitle and a quote either from a famous writer or well-known artist hence causing the reader to pounder on some thoughts about it and what the content of the chapter may entail. A good example would be chapter six, “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” This chapter itself shows us the calamity, mishap and distress that a gang member may undergo. Additionally, we get learn that as a gang member, one has to be strategic in all situations and at all times to avoid getting either killed or injured. Also for some reason, as the reader I found myself siding up with the Uche’s gang (who called themselves The Warriors) despite their stubbornness.

Like most of us, The Warriors believed in something, a place called Vahalla which gave them hope to overcome the struggles and challenges that they found themselves faced within different battles. We also learn that in order for one to become a hero, in their case did not only require bravery it also required knowing your clan and how to identify yourself from another gang. A secret handshake is another example of such and lack of knowledge of these resulted in serious consequences.

In conclusion, I would rate the book a 5/5.  I love the cover page, it is simple and clean. The title “Don’t Join” relates very well with the story line and as previously mentioned, the chapters are well aligned in order of the events. The book is not difficult to understand when read by a foreigner in comparison to other Nigerian books where one would find it difficult to relate and comprehend to the pidgin English, however in this story the writer gives a brief explanation of the meanings when spotted. The characters and story line did seem all real to me as I found it very easy to relate to each character thus making it difficult for me to spot the bad spots in the book.

- Ksesinyi