Title – A Sackful of Wishes

Author – Azizah Idris M.

Publication – 2018.

Publisher – Origami, Parresia Publishers Ltd.

Genre – Women’s Fiction.

Hadiza Musa, 25 years old, has been through hell. As a bubbly fun-loving teenager, she marries the impulsive Abdurrazaq Zanna, known as AR, and for eight years she suffers starvation, rape, and mental abuse from an increasingly obsessive husband. The death of her beloved father followed by the death of her beloved son brings things to a head. Hadiza determines for a divorce just as AR insists they are meant for each other forever. Thus, begins a battle for survival in which scars come to light and allies come from unexpected places.

Book Review

When Hadiza got married she wasn’t expecting much, but what she would have never imagined was the suffering her husband Abdurrazaq Zanna would put her through.

A Sackful of Wishes by Azizah Idris M. paints a very vivid picture of all the wrong reasons to get married. The story narrates the reason why Hadiza chose to marry the impulsive AR, who right from the onset was shown to be unstable, he did all the things that raised red flags, yet she still had hope. Her family had hope and that hope would be what destroyed her.

The use of language and narration in this book was easy enough to read, and Hadiza’s situation was very saddening, everything about her situation made my blood boil, so yes the story is emotion invoking.

The pacing and transitioning of time in the story wasn’t as smooth as it should have been, a lot of instances where happenings should have been dedicated more time to and fleshed out, but I guess it’s because this book spans a number of years, and it’s the first book in a trilogy so it should be allowed.

Which brings me to the ending, the ending was so abrupt, it just ended. There wasn’t any build up to it, nothing that said this story is coming to an end now and I found it jarring, it tried to build up suspense for the next book, but it just didn’t hit the mark as well as it should have.

Am I looking forward to the next book? Yes, because I was enamoured with the story from start to finish and it only took me some hours to read it. I am very curious about what happens next in Hadiza’s journey.

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