Belinda, seventeen, and Mary, eleven, are servant-girls for a well-to-do retired couple in Kumasi, Ghana. Amma, also seventeen, is a British-Ghanaian girl living in London: she used to be such a good daughter, but lately something's gotten into her, she's been moody, at best uncommunicative and at worst full of "rude cheekiness", to use her mother's words. Amma's parents are friends with Belinda and Mary's employers, and, impressed with what they hear and see of Belinda's diligence and politeness, and how good she's been at guiding younger, more boisterous Mary, they have an idea: to bring Belinda to live with them in London, so she can figure out what's going on with Amma and help "fix" her. Belinda doesn't really have a choice in the matter, so off she goes. But how will Mary cope without her best friend? How will Amma react to this best friend that her parents are forcing on her? And how will Belinda balance the two relationships, while at the same time figuring out her strange new home? Amber was described, not without some truth, as the female version of House. While perhaps not as smart as House, it is clear she is highly intelligent, as well as being ambitious, driven and goal oriented. The mirror patient revealed that much of this is to build her own self-esteem. Also like House, she doesn't much care about what other people think about her and her sense of self is highly dependent on her own intelligence and abilities. Unlike House, she is highly competitive and has a "win at all costs" attitude. As a result, he chose to make the house's striking facade out of thousands of timber slats, which the team painted silver. The windows and corridors give space for different camera perspectives Hold has a really striking cover which would light up any bookcase or coffee table and it is a book I really wanted to love. It was another of my recent holiday reads but it has taken me until now to process a review, as I found it difficult to unscramble my thoughts into a few coherent sentences without sounding a little over-critical in my words. A standout feature of F Residence is a double-height courtyard that has a single tree in its middle. The courtyard is surrounded by large windows, providing the occupants with multiple angles to see the tree from inside the house.

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The duality of character Donkor has portrayed through Amma — everyone has good and bad in them; everyone has their own struggles — is something that I liked. It was intellectually stimulating. Hold is the debut novel from Michael Donkor and has just been published by Fourth Estate. Moving between Ghana and London, Hold is described as ‘an intimate, moving, powerful coming-of-age novel’, telling the story of Belinda, a young Ghanaian who finds herself living in London, so utterly different from her life as a housegirl in Ghana.

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Shortlisted for the 2019 Desmond Elliot Prize for debut fiction and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers Depression is a strong theme within the book, as is the pretense that is carefully curated to hide the pain and the hollowness that a lot of the women in the book face. It’s something that sits heavy in the text, not letting up till the very end. This is a book that surrounds you with helplessness and drowns you in pain.

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A rather lazy comparison would be that Donkor does for the multi-ethnic communities of SE London what Zadie Smith has done for the North-West. The book itself makes a nod in that direction, with Belinda's book shelves soon containing: The second thing that bothered me is that in the first part of the book, where Belinda is still in Daban, Ghana, all her conversations with her employers and Mary are ALL in broken English, with a few Twi phrases thrown here and there, even though it’s mentioned elsewhere that all these dialogues were in Twi. Why would all the Twi dialogues of all the Ghanaian characters, set in the heart of Ghana, be written as broken English? Henson worked closely with the series' director Lisa Bruhlmann to ensure that the different perspectives worked before the actors arrived on set. At no point do they ask Belinda about what she wants, something that Belinda comes to realise as she becomes an independent thinker through her stay in London and her studies in her multicultural/all-ages GCSE classes. Unfortunately, I found the book a bit directionless. I enjoyed the early relationship between Belinda and little Mary but once this continued over the phone, it lost its poignancy and became more of a filler.

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I found the Ghanaian words mixed into the dialogue and broken English difficult to decipher at times, of course, and this interrupted the flow of the story. Conversely, I adored watching the girls’ friendship flourish and learning about Ghanaian culture, food, clothing, customs, and daily life. But soon Bellinda is sent to London as a companion and friend to Amma. Bellinda misses Mary but her only hope at a decent life is to befriend Anna. As these two women start to unfold, a friendship develops between them and they realize that they need each other more than they thought, especially with their inner demons trying to gnaw them away.

Amber Volakis | House Wiki | Fandom Amber Volakis | House Wiki | Fandom

There is a strange use of English used conversationally between the people in this book from Ghana, and I couldn't understand if this was, culturally, the way Ghanaian people would speak English or if the author was trying to do something. It was hard to read though, as it felt like it had originally been written in another language and then put through Google translate to transform into English. It wasn't nice to read and I felt it interrupted the flow of the story sometimes and made it stilted and awkward. Belinda took the napkin and folded it into quarters. ‘Daznice,’she said. ‘Sounds very nice for you.’ So, folks, why might Faulks have used this narrative technique in the extract we’re analysing? Can we all remember what we mean by the term “narrative technique”? Who can remember?’ This looked like being the perfect read for me - a coming-of-age novel set partly in Ghana, with the additional appeal of immigration issues. Unfortunately it didn't work for me and I struggled to finish. Mary is 11-years-old, and as a soon-to-be housegirl, she is still learning the rules. She and Belinda are becoming like sisters.I'd seen that in Japan they often use slatted timber – narrow slats of timber with spaces between them," he recalled. However, when the endgame came up in Games, House decided that Amber had to be the last to be fired. Although he admired Amber's ambition and ability to play the game, her "win at all costs" attitude wasn't compatible with the job; House said that when one works for him, one had to lose. She drifted into the room where their patient (a drug addict she had expressed contempt for) was recovering, saying she was trying not to care. Penguin copies of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and Lord of the Flies for Abacus. A Lambeth Borough Library Card that Mrs Al-Kawthari had helped her apply for. Things Fall Apart and White Teeth for fun.

House in The Girl Before designed to feel both like a House in The Girl Before designed to feel both like a

The team found an existing plot of land on which to build the facade of the house as seen in the series, though the interiors were shot at Bottle Yard Studios. Hold tells the story of Belinda, a housegirl employed in a big house in Kumasi, Ghana. Belinda enjoys the life she has there, working for ‘Aunty and Uncle’. She has eleven-year old Mary at her side, a young, sassy but lovable girl, whom Belinda has taken under her wing. Moving between Ghana and London, Hold is an intimate, moving, powerful coming-of-age novel. It’s a story of friendship and family, shame and forgiveness; of learning what we should cling to, and when we need to let go. That initially threw up this question of 'how can you create a space which you can shoot in for that period of time without it becoming boring?'" he added. Unexpectedly an opportunity arises for Belinda to travel to London to move in with a friend of Aunty’s. But this move entails a slightly different role for Belinda. She is not to fill a housegirl position, but instead that of the role of companion for a teenage girl, Amma, who is having issues and is struggling within her family unit. Amma’s parents are unable to get through to her and they feel that someone like Belinda, a girl with a sensible attitude and a solid view on life will be just what Amma needs.

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Hold is a moving, funny, and sad novel about friendship, shame, forgiveness, and growing up, that is set between Ghana and London. The protagonist is Belinda, a housegirl who moved from her village to Kumasi when the chance came. She works alongside Mary, a spirited eleven-year-old who became the sister Belinda never had, until Belinda is summoned to London to try and bring Amma out of her shell. Amma is a straight-A student who lives in south London with her Ghanian parents, but recently she has started to seem different to them, moody and uncommunicative. They hope that Belinda will be a good example on Amma, but Amma doesn’t want to be friends at first. And when they do start to get along, their own secrets might pull them apart again.