According to Oregon State University, the protagonist is the ‘character who drives the action; the character whose fate matters most.’ The protagonist changes and takes consequential actions. Going by this explanation, it is easy to tell that the protagonist in the novel is Ifelayo Adebola. She drives the actions in the novel and although there were other characters, Ife’s fate matters the most. Ife also changes; when she became overwhelmed by the therimorphs, her first instinct was to run. However, on the bus, she underwent some sort of mental change and returned to save her friends with little to no clue on how to go about it. She also chose to remain at Nithercott High despite her earlier detestation of the school.

Judging by Ife’s identity, she is Oyemakinde’s African, Yoruba, and ‘Black protagonist’. Ife is his first attempt at a Black protagonist in the paranormal genre. And because Oyemakinde lays claim to representing Black protagonists, we expect more from Ife. Excluding references to ‘hot oil’, ‘oily Nigerian tomato stew’, ‘Tosin Ajayi’, and a befuddled Yoruba spoken by Ife’s father, we find zero to no other evidence that the protagonist is indeed a ‘Black’ one. When a writer uses a Yoruba character in the diaspora as his or her protagonist, the readers expect to find some incorporation of Yoruba culture. For instance, Ife does not seem to be averse to anything at her new school. She wears her natural hair in pigtails throughout the book and there are no mentions of her taking them down or treating them; she is African after all, with a certain hair texture different from the white ensemble of characters. Oyemakinde attempted to address this shortcoming by infusing some Yoruba into Ife’s father’s speech. However, since the writer did not specify what dialect of Yoruba was being spoken, the Yoruba is subject to scrutiny. The first Yoruba statement made by Ife’s father to his wife does not align with the preceding conversation. Ife wants her friend, Ben, to spend the short holiday with her and her family but what Ife’s father says to his wife is, ‘Can Ife’s friend arrive at our place when he comes to greet Ife?’ This is different from asking if Ife’s friend can come together with Ife to spend the holiday with them at their lodging. The latter is what was really intended and would have been more accurate.

Additionally, the Yoruba speakers are accustomed to adding inflections to their speech to express mood, tension, and other kinds of emotions. This distinguishes spoken Yoruba from written Yoruba. We find none of this, and the bit of Yoruba we got in this novel sounded too mechanical to be true. While we understand that Oyemakinde attempts to represent Black protagonists across all spheres of life, close attention must be paid to how well the reader can relate with the protagonist.