By Damiete Braide
Boom Boom, Jude Idada, Winepress Publishing, 2019, pp.228
Boom Boom, written by Jude Idada, is a moving story about a family plunged into deep sorrow and race against time to prevent another terrible loss of life.
The story comes alive through Osaik, who happens to be the narrator and hero. He is introduced as a baby and, as the story moves on, he becomes a smart young lad who has to bear more than his share of his family’s trials.
Pitching an Osaik to go through all that we learn of in the story shows how wide and far author Jude Idada stretched his creative tentacles to harness a plot rich in depth and conviction that a little boy saddled with so much burden could navigate traumatic depth to overcome in the end.
The events that lead up to the heroic acts of our hero signify that humans of any age could be faced with certain unpredictable difficulties, yet what matters is getting through it regardless.
This exactly is what happens in Boom Boom. When Osaik loses his mum to sickle cell anemia, he is faced with the battle of how to save his sister from the same cruel fate.
All he has is his dog, a distraught father and a sick sister. From here onward, it becomes an emotional roller coaster.
Idada reaches into each chapter softly, revealing the magnitude of pain emblazoned in the heart of the family members, giving an insight into how each individual chooses to own their grief: “Even Kompa behaved as though the world had come to an end’’.
The Osagis are still trying to pick up the pieces of what’s left when the tables begin to shake again.
Eghe falls ill and this throws everyone into panic mode again. After she is treated, the search for a match is intensified.
The search is to get a donor who could cure Eghe of the debilitating sickle cell disorder. It is the only hope to make sure she survives at all costs. Kompa the dog is able to lead them to a donor with the help of cosmic intervention.
As improbable as it may sound, Idada works out hope through Osaik’s relentless effort to help his sister that the reader soon forgets an impossibility or doubt.
The richness of the entertainment presented through this book matches with the expanse of knowledge and research put in about sickle cell disorder. It poses a great read for all who want to know more about the disease, more so, those who don’t have much information about it.
For Eghe, as little as a headache could trigger something much more serious bout of crisis that requires medical intervention.
At other times, it could be set off by extremes of weather. At the age of five, she even suffers a stroke at the fundraising event organised to raise money for her bone marrow transplant.
Not knowing what to expect at any time from mild to severe crisis, playing on a sick bed or even having fun, to becoming comatose, fail to make the Osagies give up on finding answers. It is tough, but they endure it as a family.
The narrative is a compelling, heart warming story that captures the essence of hope and love. It reminds people to look out for each other, how we need to be empathetic to those with terminal illnesses.
It opens mysteries about animals, teaches about filial bonds and finding light at the end of the tunnel.