Eyo

by Abidemi Sanusi

Eyo, an illiterate 10-year-old girl is trafficked to the UK with promises of a better life. The novel follows her five year journey as a domestic servant and eventual sex slave in the UK, her attempts to escape and her journey around the UK as she’s passed from one human trafficker to another. Eventually, she is rescued only to realise that in even in freedom, society demands an exacting price from those it should protect.
The novel starts with Eyo's life in one of Nigeria’s most notorious slums and follows her journey from Lagos, Nigeria to the UK. She's put to work immediately by her abductors who beat and threaten her daily to keep her pliable. She is an illiterate, illegal immigrant with no family, friends nor means of escape. How does she escape? Who can she turn to for help and how does she endure?

Genres: Fiction, Africa

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Abidemi Sanusi was born in Nigeria and now lives in the UK. She is a former human rights worker, now writer. Her last book, 'Eyo', was nominated for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

A coffee enthusiast, she can often be found pontificating on the merits of a Sidamo over a Malabar on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/abidemitv

Reviews

[Sahar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 24 hours. Despite its heavy subject matter and how uncomfortable it was, I couldn’t put it down. It is beautifully written and raw but incredibly engaging. I was rooting for Eyo throughout.

Highly recommend checking this out. It’s an uncomfortable and gritty read but one that will stay with me for a long time.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Eyo is like opening your eyes to the brutality of Human beings. It is like the wind-it is everywhere and anywhere and it comes and goes even when you're already down on the ground.
Eyo is an illiterate girl, who is taken to London, by his Father's friend-Femi, with the promise of making money to send home and also getting a chance to read. She doesn't want to leave because she knows that her Father who sexually abuses her will turn on her younger sister Sade- but she goes anyway. When she gets to London Eyo for five years changes hands among people who sexually abuse her and beat her in return for money-she is their pawn to use as they please and the only thing you ask yourself is when will this end?
It is told from Eyo's point of view and with time she dies inside and becomes expressionless as though she's already defeated. But when reading you keep hoping that some part of her fights back to at least makes things okay-but then how can she when the adults mistreat her and she's an illegal immigrant in London?
This book is worth reading because what hurts the most is that the people who perpetuate this mistreatment of Eyo are women: her Mother for not defending her against her Father, Lola for beating her and making her work as a maid, Big Madame for using Eyo as a prostitute and the list is endless.

This book made me cry from the first to the last because child trafficking exists and we do so little about it-and it hurts that we can always put a stop to such things.
I would recommend that everyone read this book because you will not be the same after finishing it.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

***This book needs to be approached with caution and I don’t say that lightly…
The most uncomfortable read I have read in a while. This story will make you hate adults.

Eyo, a ten year old illiterate girl has been trafficked from Nigeria, to help her family financially, by becoming a nanny to a family in the UK. This book details the journey of a child who is moved to different groups of people and suffers excruciating trauma and abuse. We follow Eyo through different phases of her tracking from ages 10-16 years old with different people in different places; with families, in a brothel and working the streets.

This is a very tough but important read on a topic we all should not ignore. The story is graphic, vivid and so raw that it stopped feeling like a fictional story as I was trapped inside someone’s truth. At times, I felt the narrative moved away from traditional storytelling and felt more like a recounting of real events, which makes sense since it draws from true experiences.

The story has been compared to The Girl With The Louding Voice; I disagree, as Adunni was a loveable character full of hope and resilience, whereas this story, there is little hope and Eyo as a main character was not loveable. I felt the focus of this was more to highlight the trafficking system and the nasty people involved in it. There are similarities in that they are Nigerian, removed from their home and wanting an education.

I’m withholding a few stars because there’s no denying that this book moved me, however there were a few traumatic incidences between Eyo and another person that were mentioned multiple times, in depth, verbatim. It was a vivid and graphic account and I’m highly aware that these situations are reality for many girls, but I felt that the repetitiveness of these incidences were to shock and grab the attention of the reader and I think that the response would have been the same, had it only been mentioned once or twice. I was nearly in tears the first time I came across it, but after the second time, it started to become unnecessary and seemed inserted for shock value.

Definitely a story that is worth the read.

[Mia Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book snatched my entire heart out of my chest and crushed it into a million pieces. Eyo’s journey and survival was unbearable. I needed a happy ending, but the author gave us a realistic one. To think that this is still going on in 2025. If you’ve ever questioned if evil and the devil are real, I suggest reading Eyo’s story. I’m going to say again, the hope that I had for the ending was shattered.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is "crazy" and it revealed too many issues that people avoided all the time. 'Eyo' is one of the books that I studied for my course and transformed my certain perspectives of human trafficking. Heart-wrenching! 3 stars.

[Grace Alade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more than just a novel, it’s an experience. From the very first page, I was pulled into Eyo’s heartbreaking journey, and honestly, I’m still struggling to put my emotions into words.

The story follows Eyo, a young girl whose childhood is stolen from her through abuse, poverty, and exploitation. Her life is marked by betrayal from those who should have protected her, and later by the horrors of child trafficking. Reading it felt like carrying her pain with me. I had moments where I cried, moments I got angry, and moments I had to pause because the pain felt too real.

What makes Eyo so unforgettable is the way it shines a light on the dark realities we often overlook: the silence of society, the loss of innocence, and the resilience of a child who keeps enduring even when everything seems hopeless. It’s raw, it’s unapologetic, and it forces you to confront the truth about how children are failed every day.

This book hurt me, but it also opened my eyes. It’s not just fiction; it’s the story of countless voiceless children out there. And through Eyo, the author gives them a voice that cannot be ignored.

I highly recommend Eyo to anyone who loves thought-provoking, powerful stories. It may not be an easy read, but it is a necessary one. For me, this is not just a book, it’s a wake-up call.

In one word, Eyo is unforgettable.

[Oma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5 stars)
I just finished this one, and I’m still sitting with everything I read.

Some parts were incredibly hard to get through — this little girl went through so much. Her own father was her first abuser. That alone made me pause several times. I had to take my time with this book, reading it little by little, but I’m glad I did.

Eyo follows a 10-year-old Nigerian girl who is trafficked to the UK under the promise of a better life. What follows is a heartbreaking five-year journey of abuse, trauma, and survival. But it’s also about resilience — however quiet or buried it may seem. Even when she’s rescued, the reality of "freedom" is complicated and painful.

If you loved The Girl with the Louding Voice, I think this book will speak to you too — it carries a similar emotional weight, and the ending was even more emotional for me. It hurts to know that stories like Eyo’s reflect real-life horrors, but it’s so important we read them.

This is one of those books that stays with you. You don’t walk away from it the same.

[Dhruti Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a literary, grammar and writing point of view this book is not the most polished, however it more than makes up for it in raw emotion and horror.

The fact that this is not horror but based on what goes on in real life is what makes it even more disturbing.

An extremely important book, as this story needed to be told, though only attempt to read it if you are in a good place mentally as it will depress you and make you want to scream and cry.

[Sandra Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful read.

Young illerate girl, living in poverty, is taken to the UK. There, she is supposed to be sent to school. Instead, she is made Into a maid and sexuality assaulted. Then, sent other places, becoming a prostitute. Eventually, she goes back home, realizing she no longer belongs there, either.

[Winnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a well-written story!!!

[Julie J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read at all. But a subject we should not turn our backs on.

[SheWritesWoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first came across this book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got the kindle version from Amazon (UK) and started reading, and honestly, I couldn’t put it down. The twists and constant climax kept me glued. The author kept it elaborate, yet neat, and it is by far one of the best books I have ever read.

Eyo is a ten year old girl from the slums of Ajegunle; a bustling ghetto on the swampy marshes of the Lagos lagoon in Nigeria. Desperate for a better life, her parents set her on an unwinding and unexpected journey from home. She is left to unwillingly subjugate herself to horrors no child should ever face just to earn a living and fend for her family, with hopes of returning home with essence.

Eyo is a powerful, gut-wrenching plight of children trafficked around the world with promises for a better life. This book is an eye opener to an ongoing reflection of human brutality. I found it highly intense, even more explicit and more heart wrenching due to the realisation that child trafficking can be treated with such pettiness. The desperation to survive drove her parents to extreme and questionable measures. I read through it with tears in my eyes, being able to only imagine what this plucky ten-year-old in a strange land away from her family and those she loves went through – mistreated and disappointed by people who promised her a better life and new opportunities.

At every point of this book I found myself angry – angry because her parents, her community and her society had failed her. I felt I had failed her. I kept asking myself what I had done to stop kids like Eyo from going through these terrors and violations. We the newsreaders and bystanders when this injustice happens have failed Eyo. Every child needs protection and they need it from us. It reminded me of this quote from Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. – He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

I must warn you, this is not an easy read, I found myself feeling very upset and disgusted through the book but this is a story that needed to be told and Abidemi Sanusi did an amazing job telling it. I did a little research about the author and found out she used to be a human rights worker; I guess that explains why she was able to describe and portray the characters explicitly. I highly recommend this novel as a must read for every individual.

I usually won’t do this, but I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Have you read this book? Care to share your thoughts?

[LeAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, gut-wrenching insight into the inner mind of a child sex slave. You’ll want to scream your indignation at those who excuse their own exploitation of the vulnerable. This plucky ten-year-old is in a strange land far from those she loves, mistreated by people who had promised new opportunities, alone without documentation, without English, without education, invisible to “the system.” The book touches on faith near the end when a priest and nun step in, but this is far more gritty and realistic than any inspirational fiction I ever read. The spiritual resolution is anything but satisfying, but I’m sure accurately reflects the frustrations of their ministry with sex workers. Although the setting is UK (“uukay” to the newly-arrived Eyo), I doubt the US system is any better at coping with a capacity for evil in men that sickens the heart.

There were some grammatical problems I attributed to the author not being a native speaker of English. Since most characters were Nigerian, the non-standard use of “wouldn’t” instead of “won’t” simply added to the flavor. However, it was a bit disconcerting for native Brits to make the same mistake. Perhaps I lack the necessary subtlety, but the ending wasn’t explicit enough for me. Was Eyo walking toward the house or away from it? I know which way I wanted her to go, but the ending set up to make me expect something else.

Highly recommended but expect to be shaken.

[Alice Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was heartbreaking, and extremely realistic. With a main character you can't help loving, and a plot that highlights the real-life horrors of human trafficking, this book is unforgettable. I'll be looking for more books from this author.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutal reflection of an ongoing situation

[Carl Lemashon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opens you to a new dynamic of the world, slavery and how t breeds into a vicious cycle.