One day, when Meredith presses Niru to push their friendship further, Niru, a Nigerian-American male who happens to be a talented athlete as well as someone destined for Harvard, comes to a realization about himself: he is gay. When Meredith attempts to help him, her efforts land Niru into trouble when he is forced to go back briefly to Nigeria to undergo a gay conversion therapy and upon his return, neither his nor Meredith's life is destined to be the same again.

What worked really well for SPEAK NO EVIL is the fact that I get a chance to see how people from Africa made a home for themselves in America and I really liked being part of the Nigerian culture and learning fascinating tidbits about the country. I also enjoyed some of the insights that the author provided when it comes to being an immigrant, such as how all nations have their own problems.

One of the things I found confusing is the fact that dialogue had no quotation marks and instead bled into the paragraph itself; another is that Uzondinma Iweala has at least quite a number of fascinating ideas; that of a student of color discovering he is gay and then being forced to go through gay conversion therapy as well as how his sexuality will impact his conservative family and their values. There is also the inclusion of police brutality and the aftermath and exploration of being an immigrant and of what it's like to grow up in a privileged area.

If you are looking for a unique story that talks about immigration from Africa as well as a YA novel that is intense and reminiscent of THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, SPEAK NO EVIL might prove to be the right book for that reader.