Review: The Maid and the Crocodile

The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading this book amounted to giving the author a second chance, as my previous try had resulted in an emphatic did-not-finish. This illustrates that sometimes a reader just has to be in the right mindset to "get" a book. I not only "got" this book, I finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Maybe because it's intended for the young-adult audience, but I found this book to be simpler (but not simplistic) and straightforward, with nice characterizations and a rather sophisticated theme of class struggle. Our protagonist, Sade (or "Small Sade" as she is not tall) can see and manipulate what she calls "spirit silt": the psychic drippings and accumulations of human emotions, in a room and on objects and people, and can clean and remove said silt in a way that mitigates its influence. She is kicked out of the orphanage where she has been living on her seventeenth birthday, and must make her way into the city completely on her on, to find a job or starve.

Along the way she picks up several interesting side characters, including Zuri, the "crocodile god" who is far more than he seems; and the so-called "Amenities," or servants, at the Balogun Inn and Philosophy Salon, an establishment where she lives and works for a while. At least until the owner tries to force Sade to become a spirit-cleaning indentured servant, absorbing and "eating" the many sins of the city's wealthy. This process is so revolting that Sade flees, and is taken in by the Crocodile. The Crocodile, the former prince of a wealthy land who gave up the throne, is a character with a fascinating backstory, who has to learn a few lessons in his own right: namely, to do honest work for a living and support the lower-class workers in their oppression by the higher-ups. Sade also has to learn that she is worthy of being respected and loved. She and the other Amenities end up taking over the Balogun Inn, renaming it the Tall Tale Inn and turning it into an establishment where the experiences of the working class are presented every night as little one-act plays, telling the stories of the people in the city. (I wish the author could have delved a little deeper into that. That could have made an entire book all by itself.)

This is a nice coming-of-age tale for both Sade and the Crocodile. The fate of their world and city is not necessarily at stake; the stakes here are based on the characters. Perhaps it's this quieter, more personal story that drew me in. At any rate, this book is worth reading, and definitely changed my opinion of the author. Not every book is for everybody, but I'm glad I gave the author another chance.

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