There once was. A girl called Ayodele. Her story can be told in many different ways.
Reading the Ceiling tells the story of Ayodele, a girl who on her eighteenth birthday decides to lose her virginity. She has lined up her possible suitors, but is undecided as to who will be 'the one' to do it with. Charting Ayodele's life in three different ways (all based on one of the men she ends up losing her virginity to), this book is really about how the choices you make influence your life.
I liked the concept of the book - three different realities and seeing how Ayodele's life pans out. I didn't particularly like Ayodele as a character. If I'm honest, I didn't really get Ayodele. This was a woman who decided at the age of 18 to lose her virginity, who was obviously a fiercely independent, modern woman, but after that one decision, she let her life be determined by whichever man was in her life. It was like the only one real decision she made in her life was to lose her virginity. After that, however life panned out, she would just accept it as is. Ayodele was also a really closed person - even though it was told in first person, I never knew what she was really thinking or how she was really feeling.
A very pleasant read, and a well-written debut novel.
3.75 out of 5 stars (not quite a 4 for me).
