I loved Love In Colour . You can tell Bolu Babalola is genuinely fascinated by love. Real love, the pretty bits, the stressful bits. The bits you weren’t expecting but ultimately made you appreciate who you are
I don’t usually describe books as warm but that’s what this was. I found it beautiful. I also don’t usually read romance (been re-thinking that a little bit lately!). Anyone can enjoy this collection. I did feel that this looked for something more -What do we need each other for? But it’s still fun
I don’t need to at this point (Love In Colour already a Sunday Times Best Seller!) but I thoroughly recommend ! It’s definitely one of my favourites this year
Love In Colour is a a captivating collection of reworked short folktales and myths from West Africa, Greece the Middle East, China. All about love, connection, lust, courage, the human spirit. All very much vivid, very much in colour. The audio book is also brilliant, all the narration really make the stories jump out and surround you. The author and Ajjaz Awad’s voiced the text with passion and familiarity
I have quite a few favourites. Love In Colour opens with a banger in Osun, about the beautiful Nigerian Goddess. I loved how Bolu Babalola made the African deities relatable. Enchanting but still recognisable in their affairs. I loved Scheherazade as well. It captures a young, intelligent brazen woman who thinks she is in complete control of her own fate. My feelings were genuinely involved in some stories! Attem is a fascinating tale of the beautiful, daring young wife of a King who is refreshingly unafraid of satisfying her own lusts. Yaa is a story about an ambitious Ghanaian woman questioning how her future has been taken for granted. The story inspired by her parents genuinely got my heart, I can only imagine what it must be like for your kid to write about you this way. I’m about to list all the stories, I loved them!
In the stories like Naleli and Thisbe you can really hear the pop culture and romcom influences the ‘romcommesieur” is famous for. Even more so in the new tales like Orin and Tiara.
really liked it because I believe in love but I’m also a realist. There is beauty in being real.
It does feel like a collection of stories that were written for me. Some folklore I can imagine and some modern inflections feel tangible in real life. In the protagonists, Love In Colour centred Black and Brown girls with vim! Very important to make our own joy in storylines right now. Bolu Babalola didn’t go for wilting wall flowers waiting for Prince Charming. I think what spoke to me is that some of these myths are founded where my roots are – but the story telling has really bought it into my reality today
Women calling their own plays- A step out of tradition
As well as love between partners, connection between women is an important theme throughout Love In Colour. Trust, sacrifice, admiration between women. Women taking agency- Bolu Babalola mentions that she re-wrote the problematic originals, allowing for updated outlooks . Women seeing into the realities of relationships and their partners rather than sailing on Disney clouds. I really liked that because I believe in love but I’m also a realist. There is beauty in being real.
The mythology in particular, I found such a joy to read.I wished I knew all their origins so I was happy to see she’d included them at the end of the book.
I knew Babalola could write from the Netflix And Chill short story but listen, your favourite Twitter-er is a superstar with words, I can’t wait to see what she will write next
Also, if you read Acknowledgements, the ones in this book were a treat, author’s note too!
Love In Colour was included in my post a few months ago about Books By Black British Authors to look out for in Summer 2020
Love In Colour by Bolu Babalola published in 2020 by Headline Publishing Group
