Chopsticks By Hadiza Oredegbe

Chopsticks By Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral
“Read once & Fall madly in Love, not just with the book, but with the characters”
By Hadiza Oredegbe


I have a confession to make. I actually read this book without reading any reviews. That is highly unusual for me because I rarely read any books and when I do, it’s under two circumstances: 1) I’ve read it before, loved it and would read it again or 2, it comes with the highest recommendations from my most trusted friends. Chopsticks is a bit of teenage story for me because out of all the books to choose from the library, I chose it simply because of first impressions. One glance through the book and I knew it was for me: The entire story is told in photos of everyday things. It amazed me in five seconds, so I signed it out. 
When you first look at the cover, what do you think it’s going to be about? Well, for me I thought it was going to be your usual girl meets boy. But Chopsticks is so much more than that. Depending on how you interpret the novel, it could actually tell two different stories. It could tell the simple story of sixteen-year-old Gloria a piano player, who falls in love with Francisco Mendoza, a boy who becomes her escape from her stressful life. Sounds fluffy, right? Well, it can also tell the deep and dark story of a lonely, broken, child pushed so hard to perform to perfection that she slowly loses her mind, causing you to question everything you see in the book or thought you saw. Do I have your attention yet??
Chopsticks is a simple brilliant book. The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” was one of the very few quotes that got my attention. This book really doesn’t need the extra words. Chopsticks is very intimate in that way because it feels like you’ve been peeping into someone else’s life, as if you were reading their diary for eighteen months in only 272 pages. It’s the kind of book that you could zip through in thirty minutes. I am so happy that I choose this book, not only can a teenage reader relates to this, they can also get into it so much that you would ever want to put it down. 
Description: “After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As readers flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, they see a girl on the precipice of disaster.”