Kwasi is a Ghanaian child in London struggling in school and socially. He meets Rupert, a widower who owns a charity shop, and an odd friendship begins.

This was not the easiest story for me to get through, but I did like the characters.

Thank you to the author, Mariner Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

I tried a few times getting into this novel but it just wasn’t for me. Literary fiction can be a hard genre for me. I either love it or am bored and uninterested. Unfortunately it was the latter. It was just too slow of a plot for my personal taste.

I struggled a bit to finish this one, and I am not quite sure why. Regardless, it was an interesting tale that I am glad I had the chance to check out.

I wanted to like this book. The concept, a young boy moving across town and needing to find a way to connect with hours seemed engaging. A book that spans multiple generations also appealed to me, however, I never felt engaged with the characters. I pushed through and read about half before I finally had to move on.

I didn't quite grasp what was going on here. This book took so long to finish and it's a short book. It started strong but then began meandering in the middle and never recovered. I was so hopeful, I even bought a hard copy while traveling in London but unfortunately I was just disappointed.

This book suffers from having too many side-plots that end up underdeveloped and distracting. The whole story could have been told from inside the charity shop, with Rupert and Kwasi still struggling with social pressures of what they should do vs. what they want to do, and been a much stronger novel. The Aunties and Tulip just appear with very little backstory or connection to the plot, and only serve to dish out pressure for Rupert and Kwasi. King Obi and Dadda take up too much space. Jericho and his crew, plus the "threat" of homeless vagrants moving in next store add little to the story. Actually the only parts of the story I enjoyed were set within the shop when the characters talked about the displays and community engagement. Strip the plot down to these two characters dealing with the pressures of life from two different perspectives, and show them developing a friendship (in the book we are basically just told they are now friends, but friends would know each others name, right?), and then we have something special.

Young Kwasi, child of Ghanaian parents and older shopkeeper, Rupert, the main characters of this book develop a friendship over the course of this book. Kwasi is struggling in school and dealing with bullies. Rupert is a grieving widow trying to keep his charity shop open.

This is a slow read and personally difficult to follow for me. There seemed to be a lot of nuances and different ancillary characters but didn’t keep my interest. I wanted to love this book after reading the synopsis but it wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the opportunity to read an advanced eCopy.

In a Nutshell: Had great potential but the writing style makes this book a tough one to enjoy. It is interesting and atypical. Literary fiction lovers *might* enjoy this. The GR blurb isn’t accurate.

Story Synopsis:
Young Kwasi has always lived with his mom and his various ‘aunties’ who keep coming and going out of his home. When his family shifts to a new side of London, Kwasi’s life is uprooted, leading to mixed feelings in him. His only place of solace is the ‘Chest of Small Wonders’, a charity shop run by an eccentric old man named Rupert, who is battling his own demons. The story covers Kwasi’s adjustment into his new lifestyle, Rupert’s battle of wills with those who want him to give up the shop, and the connection and unlikely parallels between their lives.

Where the book worked for me:
👍There are quite a few interesting characters in the story. Both Kwasi and Rupert are unusual and strong characters, and they carry the plot well on their underconfident shoulders.
👍I loved the idea of the ‘Chest of Small Wonders’. A book set around a small independent story always has a strong local flavour, and this novel is no exception. It brings to life the high street of London that it is set on. The vividness and variety of the activities and objects in the shop is a further attraction.
👍Many elements in the plot highlight the value of having a strong local community spirit. Enjoyed all of these.
👍The characters of Kwasi and Rupert are quite contrary to each other, and yet both seem to be dealing with similar issues, trying to fit in a world that demands a certain behaviour from them. Kwasi’s dreams of becoming an artist and Rupert’s insistence on being allowed to run his shop the way he wants to are written very well.
👍The ending is somewhat bittersweet, but it worked for me. Might not work for everyone.
👍The author is a British-Ghanaian writer, and she explores both sides of her national identity well in this book. I haven’t read a book with Ghanaian characters, so this was a decent first look. However,…. (continued below)

Where the book could have worked better for me:
👎 (continued from above)… I did expect to learn more about Ghana considering the author’s heritage. But the references are very casual and vague, and I learnt just a bare minimum of what could have been possible.
👎 Other than the main duo and a couple of the other characters, the rest are somewhat unidimensional and predictable.
👎 After a strong start, the book delves into repetition and doesn’t recover from the stagnancy until almost the final quarter. This makes the middle part tedious.
👎Several facts are touched upon but never explained. Most of these are connected to Kwasi’s aunties – I never quite figured out their exact role in the house.
👎The blurb promises “an unexpected friendship develops between man and boy”. This makes the story seem warm but the reality is quite the opposite. It becomes pretty dark and gloomy at times, and the supposed ‘friendship’; is more like a strange connection than anything else.
👎The book is too slow and the plot, meandering.


Overall, quite mixed feelings. The characters and their situations are good, but the plot and the writing required more work. 50% good feelings, so a 50% good rating.

2.5 stars, rounding up as it is a debut work.

My thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “To Fill a Yellow House”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I finished reading To Fill A Yellow House a couple of weeks ago but I have struggled to sit down to write a review. My biggest issue is that, while engaging at times, I also felt lost the rest of the time.

Kwasi, which autocorrect will change to virtually anything else, moves to a bigger house with more family members than are even named. Seriously, they’re just referred to as “Aunties” the whole time. When he meets Rupert, a middle aged man mourning the loss of his wife and owner of a charity thrift shop, an u likely friendship is formed. Kwasi finds stability with Rupert and Rupert find…well, I’m not sure.

The story bounced around a lot and I never felt like I had a firm enough grasp on it. I am sure there is an audience for this book, it just want for me.

I appreciate NetGalley & Mariner Books for the ARC to read & provide feedback.

While good, To Fill A Yellow House is a bit of a slow burn. The story follows young Kwasi, who has a passion for art despite his family’s misgivings about it, and Rupert, an older shop owner trying to stay afloat. It’s a very artsy tale about belonging, immigration, social status, and more.

I was fortunate to win an advanced reader’s copy of this title from #NetGalley.This book was a very, slow tedious read for me.The descriptions were well written but so many things were repetitive.

TO FILL A YELLOW HOUSE by Sussie Anie is a debut novel filled with impressive writing: "A crack has split the pavement where he stands .... The road here is like the crust of a bread roll that has swollen and cracked. Traffic slows, approaching the scars of potholes, and one by one, vehicles hiccup over the fault." Those imaginative thoughts are attributed to a young boy named Kwasi who has just moved to London with his mother and several "aunties." While gifted artistically, it appears that he is on the spectrum and has difficulty relating to others, although he does form a bond of sorts with another loner, Rupert, a charity shop proprietor. The tale begins quite slowly and there are multiple time periods and points of view which contributed to the difficulty in following the storyline.

4.5 stars! This is a story about a child of color, born to immigrant parents coming of age in London. The author excels at sense of place, descriptions, metaphor, and character development. The story is a book of possibilities in which the reader will bring their own experience to their understanding. Are we living in a world with the capacity for building real community or in a world of closed doors and class constructs? It’s a slow moving story (maybe a little too slow) that will be appreciated by readers who value character development more than action. It’s an engaging 1st novel, & I look forward to more from this author. This is an honest review of the free, uncorrected E-Proof from NetGalley.

I read To Fill a Yellow House at the request of Tavia Kovalchuk for consideration as a possible book to promote on BookBrowse. Sadly, we agreed, it was not a good fit.