SuitabookThe Upper World
Femi Fadugba
- Reading
- Try reading it in sections that follow each timeline, pausing to track what each character knows about the past or future. Discuss the physics only as far as it supports curiosity and the plot.
- Themes
- Free will and circumstance: Esso and Rhia try to change a future shaped by violence, while the story considers whether people’s situations result from decisions, social conditions or both. The book appears to examine competing explanations rather than offering a simple answer, inviting discussion about agency without reducing circumstance to personal failure.
- Grief, loss and hope: The characters confront the possibility or consequences of lives being cut short, while trying to prevent a tragedy affecting people they love. Loss is presented as emotionally important and connected to hope, but the precise emotional journey and resolution are not clear.
- Science and storytelling: Time travel and a metaphysical realm are linked to physics, with diagrams, explanations and equations supporting the plot. Scientific ideas are treated as a meaningful part of the fictional world, potentially encouraging curiosity while remaining tied to suspense and character decisions.
- Worth knowing
- Before reading, consider whether a story involving gang conflict, a shooting, threatened deaths, grief and foster care feels manageable. The treatment and intensity of later scenes remain unclear.