Tomi Oyemakinde

Tomi Oyemakinde does not disappoint! Thanks to Library thing and Tomi Oyemakinde for the ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The pacing was great & I didn't find myself skimming or skipping over anything. I liked the writing style. The author does a great job of describing this futuristic, Jurassic park style resort and it's inhabitants. I loved the all the unique flora & fauna. The conflict between Femi, Dapo & their father touched at my heart strings. When things go awry during their vacation, there is a sense of dread which made it hard for me to put down the book in the second half. I do feel like the ending was tiny bit rushed and the random chapters in the middle of the book were unnecessary. But aside from those 2 thing, I really liked this book and would gladly read a sequel (if there is one)… (more)

MY THOUGHTS:
This book was pretty good! Definite Jurassic Park vibe that I found to be more sci-fi than horror in genre. With that being said, I thought this was a fast-paced, well written YA book that 12 year old me would have loved. I liked the timeline marking chapters. I thought they helped keep the story moving and also showed how quickly events spiraled out of control. However, the interlude chapters seemed off and I could have went without most of them. I felt that they didn’t really add anything to the story overall, and we could have learned any of the information provided in them through character interaction. Thank you to the author and publisher for the ARC/ eGalley of this book in exchange for my honest review.

GENERAL VIBES: YA, vacation gone wrong, chronological timeline, bpoc main character… (more)

The Changing Man follows Ife Adebola as she begins her first year at the privileged, private Nithercott School as part of The Urban Achievers scholarship program. She is missing her old friends and school and is hearing creepy stories of The Changing Man, a school urban legend. When her new friend Malika undergoes a personality change, she teams up with Ben, whose older brother has vanished, rumored to have been taken by the Changing Man. Joined by a third friend, Bee, they team up to investigate the school's history of students who have seemed to disappear and reappear.
The story started as a slow build getting bogged down with private school drama. The pace picks up in the last third of the book and the story heads in an unexpected and interesting direction. The characters felt much younger than they were meant to be which gave the book a middle grade RL Stine vibe. An entertaining mystery, horror, sci-fi story combined with dark academia with diverse rep and a strong focus on the value of friendship.… (more)

"The Changing Man" by Tomi Oyemakinde is an excellent debut novel! It has everything: private high school drama, mysterious happenings, a school-centric urban legend (or is it?), and some great twists!

First, I really enjoyed the main character of Ife. She seemed very realistic, and I liked getting to know her as she struggled to maintain her own identity at a posh private school. She's a scholarship student, and didn't easily fit in with the wealthier/lazier students. I liked how she met and bonded with other scholarship kids, and how their friendships grew. Ife, Ben, and Bijal were all well-written and seemed like true individuals. I've seen other reviews mention that some of the students acted and spoke as if they were younger, but I attributed much of that to the fact that many of these are sheltered rich kids with little experience in the real world.

The mystery/urban legend plot was definitely a slow build, which I enjoyed. Much of the early part of the book is spent on Ife getting accustomed to her new school, but there are subtle hints of eerie things to come all along. Once the creepy events started ramping up, I was invested enough in the characters to really care about the outcome.

And yes, there is a twist! I didn't see it coming, and love it when a book manages to surprise me. I won't say more so you can try to figure it out as you read and (hopefully) be as surprised as I was!

Definitely 5 chunks of spicy cheddar jack!… (more)