A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Published 2023 · 104,250 words · about 12 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction
How hard is A Spell of Good Things to read?
A Spell of Good Things scores 42 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
- Clear contemporary prose with Nigerian vocabulary.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- Accessible sentences serving social realism.
- Abstraction: 40 out of 100
- Questions of class and corruption through experience.
- Information density: 42 out of 100
- Nigerian society across classes efficiently conveyed.
- Narrative indirection: 45 out of 100
- Two perspectives illuminate different social positions.
- Symbolic density: 45 out of 100
- The spell, prayer, and Nigerian politics carry weight.
- Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
- Arimah writes with evident sympathy.
- Resolution withholding: 45 out of 100
- Lives intersect but systemic issues continue.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Dual narratives across class divide.
How A Spell of Good Things is regarded
A Spell of Good Things holds a literary regard score of 57 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.