Reign of Freedom

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By Inma Hollis

There are stories that entertain, and then there are stories that quietly dismantle something inside you. Reign of Freedom belongs to the second kind. Ebenezer O. Makinde takes what could have been a simple coming of age tale and turns it into something far more unsettling and necessary: a mirror held up to the part of us that has always confused the idea of freedom with the actual weight of it.

Reading this book feels like walking through fog that slowly lifts, not all at once, but in small, deliberate patches. Adun's journey pulls you in not because it's dramatic in the way action driven stories are, but because it's emotionally honest in a way that sneaks up on you. You find yourself rooting for him while also quietly dreading what he might discover. The wilderness he walks through is never just a physical place, and Makinde makes sure you feel that in your chest before your brain fully registers it.

The themes here go well beyond one boy's search. Freedom, what it actually costs, what it demands of the person who wants it, sits at the center of everything. But so does purpose, and the terrifying gap between dreaming of a life and being prepared to live it. These are questions that don't belong to any one culture or generation, even though Makinde roots them deeply in Yoruba symbolism and myth. That grounding is actually what makes the universality land harder, because the specificity gives it real texture instead of vague inspiration.

His writing has a parable like quality that never feels preachy. The Akoya pearls, the mythical Issachar, the West as destination and metaphor, these elements carry meaning without announcing themselves. Makinde trusts his imagery to do the work, and it does.

This is the kind of book that sits with you after the last page, not because it answered everything, but because it asked the right things at exactly the right depth.

About The Author

Ebenezer O. Makinde

Ebenezer O. Makinde is the award-winning author of seven books, Reign of Freedom (2019), Light of Darkness (2021), Worth of Diamonds (2023), Hopeland (2023), Cassius King (2023), The Wonderful Attic of Dreams (2024) and the award-winning collection of poetry Rise: An Inspired Book of Dreams.