Blog Tour: The Beautiful Side of the Moon by Leye Adenle #TheBeautifulSideOfTheMoon @leyeadenle @CrimeSceneBooks @annecater #RandomThingsTours

Marking an exciting new departure by award-winning Nigerian author Leye Adenle (Easy Motion Tourist, When Trouble Sleeps), The Beautiful Side of the Moon raises an entirely unexpected and intriguing question – what would happen if God went on holiday?
In order to get a better understanding of what it’s like to be human, and to taste humanity’s joys and sorrows, God decides to have a holiday as a human being. During the course of his time off, though, he completely forgets that he’s God, which leads to some utterly unpredictable outcomes…
A delightful, playful, thoughtful adventure in speculative fiction by one of Nigeria’s most exciting new writers.

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this awesome book! Massive thanks to Anne Cater for the invitation, and of course also to Leye Adenle and Crime Scene Books for the eARC!

If you’re a regular here you’ll know how much I adore my thrillers. Can’t get enough of them! And yet. And yet there always comes a time when I’ve read that one too many thriller that’s basically every other thriller rehashed and I need a palate cleanser. Enter The Beautiful Side of the Moon. I told you very enthusiastically on Twitter that it was just what the doctor prescribed, and that I couldn’t wait to share my thoughts. Obviously now the time has come to do just that, all the words have left my brain to go and drink strawberry daiquiris on a tropical beach or whatever and I’m left with

via GIPHY

Yeah, that won’t do, will it? Nope, didn’t think so. What about: this is mind-bending, mind-boggling mind-fuckery! Better? No? Sigh. Okay, here goes. This is a delight to read. It’s fun, it’s quite short with very short chapters and therefore a rather quick read, although it does make you ponder certain things, and in that way it’s perhaps less quick than you’d think. Also, there are some beautifully worded parts in there that I read multiple times just to bask in their gorgeousness, which slowed me down a bit too.

The story starts out with an everyday main character in everyday Nigerian life, until it suddenly isn’t so everyday anymore: IT guy Osaretin receives a mysterious letter that speaks of magic and magicians. But when he wants to show it to his friends and this gorgeous woman he’s just met and wants to impress, the page is blank. Before Osaretin knows what hit him, he’s caught up in this whirlwind of men in black and Brother Moses with a snake in his hair and turning back time. Also: I will never again look at a car wash in the same way. And that’s BEFORE he lands on the beautiful side of the moon. Once he’s there, there’s no limit to the craziness! Yes, my dear friends, a lot happens on the beautiful side of the moon that remains hidden from us mere mortals! This probably won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but my oh my, it sure is mine! It’s fantasy, it’s sci-fi, it’s a bit of everything all rolled up in one awesome little book.

All through the story, I kept wondering about the ending. I kept asking myself: how on earth will this come together, and in so few pages! And then it was suddenly there: the finale. And you know, it had been right there the entire time, and it was blatantly obvious. Yet somehow the ending took me by surprise. I must have read that final sentence half a dozen times. And then I reread the entire final page. And then I read it again. Honestly, there’s only one word I can use to describe that finale: brilliant.

Recommended!

Check out the other stops on this Random Things Tour!