Vagabonds! is a glorious, queer riot of a book which feels more like a full-body experience than a book you read! At first I thought I wasn’t going to be into it, as it’s quite experimental, with chapters narrated by spirits, but as the week went on and I had the time to sit down for longer with it each time, I was absolutely hooked. It flits around the perspectives of various ‘vagabonds’ who are forced to live in the shadowy underbelly of Lagos, shunned for who they love. I'm not sure I ever fully grasped Èkó and Tatafo's purpose, beyond being the narrative thread that binds all of the vignettes together, but that doesn't really matter. The vignettes focusing on the myriad of gorgeous queer lives is the true triumph of this book. 

They make up one of the richest narratives I've read in recent years. Women loving women, men loving men, trans folk finding the familial acceptance they deserve, sex workers thriving in a society that both reveres and despises them, fairygod girls protecting their earthly charges, women suffering domestic violence ascending to higher planes... all of it is so evocatively told. As I was reading this one in print, I was also listening to A Two-Spirit Journey, and honestly it probably did that audiobook a disservice. Sometimes they covered similar topics (Two-Spirit is nonfiction), and I couldn't help but compare the writing. 

Some scenes in this book will just never leave my brain, either for their incredible beauty, heartbreak, or pure shock. Two sex workers who return home to their cosy little nest each morning. Women who literally ascend to a different plane while the abusive men they leave behind are left to fend for themselves in the hell of their own making. A young trans girl who, given the attitudes of her society at large, finds unexpected solace in her mother who recognises her for who she truly is (this one absolutely broke me, so beautiful). A hypocritical politician (is there any other kind?) who meets a grim fate when his boy sex robots power down at an inopportune time. 

Again (I'm doing this too much this year), I feel like I did *myself* a disservice by not being able to give this book the attention is deserves when I first started reading it. Had I, it probably would be a no-brainer 5 stars. One I'll be adding to the reread pile, along with Martyr!.