RaveChicago Review of BooksUnapologetically Yoruba, an unmistakable Nigerian verisimilitude permeates the novel. Readers unfamiliar with tribal nuances in southwestern Nigeria get no glossaries, soggy transliterations, or italicizations of Nigerian contexts ... Political rivalry paradoxically binds and dampens the characters’ lives, but Adébáyọ̀’s tone is so assured and masterful that it does not steep into the contrived and pithy missteps political and proletarian novels could take ... A Spell of Good Things is irrefutably expansive and yet so domestic that its characters linger. Although longer and arguably more multifaceted than Adébáyọ̀’s critically acclaimed debut, Stay with Me, it is a testament to Adébáyọ̀’s ability to weave multiple narratives amidst a poignant sense of Nigeria’s political landscape.
