Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters

16 reviews

irie_e's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75


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hannahladipo12's review

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0


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justxis's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Don't believe the genre list. If you expect mystery and thriller, there will be none. It's more about women, bad international marriage, mental and physical abuse, immigration, and family. 

I usually like such stories, but nothing clicked this time. I don't know if it was the narrator, but I really struggled to finish. I was even thinking about DNFing, but I was still curious about what really happened to Nicole (and was disappointed in the end).
Got better in the second half, but more is needed to like this book. 

I didn't like the switching between now and then and couldn't like any character. I was thinking between two and three stars. But the story itself wasn't that bad; just the delivery didn't impress me. So, I ended up giving it three. 

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liter_aly's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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bluerskies's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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amberinpieces's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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anarmandameg's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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minimicropup's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Perceptive. Philosophical. Eloquent.  
šŸ‡³šŸ‡¬ā˜€ļøšŸŒ§ļø Set in the Victoria Island region of Lagos, Nigeria. The story unfolds during summer and the rainy season. 
POV: We alternate between the perspectives of one character before their disappearance and that of their relative travelling to Nigeria from the UK to find them. 
 
Mood Reading Match Up: 
-Deep dives into family dynamics, exploring different aspects of African identity, expatriate experiences, and cultural contrasts 
-True crime-style mystery centred on a missing person 
-Complex romantic drama with themes of secret lives and mismatched relationships 
-Rich exploration of themes like ā€˜behind closed doorsā€™, femininity, motherhood, marriage, tradition versus rebellion, love, freedom, and sacrifice. 
 
ā€” 
šŸŗ Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags šŸ• 
āœļø Writing: The prose is beautifully crafted. It has a heavy reliance on dialogue to drive the plot and scenes, so if thatā€™s not your favourite it could be more difficult to stay engaged. 
 
šŸ«„ Characters: All the characters are intriguing to learn about, gradually becoming relatable and evoking empathy or frustration. 
 
šŸ—ŗļø Worldbuilding: The description of Lagos is atmospheric and experiential, offering in-depth insights into the sounds, smells, sights, and local culture. 
 
šŸ”„ Fuel: The story is character-driven, focusing on Nicoleā€™s life leading up to her disappearance and the subsequent search to uncover the truth. 
 
šŸ¢ Pacing: The narrative is dialogue-heavy, interspersed with monologues recalling past conversations. It feels like a drama, with distinctive character voices and opinions. It sometimes feels slow, particularly when characters are philosophical or exploring commentary, but I never found it uninteresting or lazy. I can see how it can  be tiresome if you are here mainly here for the mysteries and thrills though!  

That endingā€¦I need to know more! Hoping for a follow-up novel!  
 
šŸ¤”  Random Thoughts: The novel excellently portrays the complexities of gender roles and expectations, showing how these can be both protective and destructive. It delves into the reasons behind the enforcement of traditions and their impacts on modern society. 
I think it was a thought-provoking and immersive read, offering a multifaceted view of Nigerian life and the complexities of interpersonal relationships. 
 
šŸŽ§ Audio: The audiobook narration is outstanding, with clear distinctions between characters and accents. Narrators brought the characters to life and despite the timeline switching and large-ish cast of characters I never felt lost or confused. 
 
ā€” 
 
Content Heads-Up: Death. Missing spouse. Loss of adult child. Infidelity. Domestic violence. Gaslighting, mental abuse. Slavery (recalled, character opinions). Sexual content (consentual; mentioned, insinuated). Infidelity (on page; descriptive). Toxic gender dynamics. Racism (internalized, externalized; colourism). 
Rep includes: Nigerian and Carribean immigration, history, and cultural outlooks; foreign wives of Nigerian men. 
 
Format: Library Audio via Libby. 
 
ā€œReviews are my musings šŸ’– powered by puppy snuggles šŸ¶ refined by my AI Bestie āœØā€ 

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tabby2920's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved the family dynamic and the realism that was presented here. It provides a twist towards the end and leaves open-ended questions that the reader can interpret on their own terms. Claudine is an amateur sleuth in finding out what happened to her niece. However, it is not how amateur sleuths are usually depicted in fiction; they are represented uniquely and realistically. 

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jazzyreads_99's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

As a black woman myself, Iā€™ve been looking for more black female authors to read from and support. I love reading black literature and hearing the thoughts of different black people from all around the world. But in all honesty, I honestly hated this book so much. And that disappoints me because I wanted to like this book so bad. 

This is the first book Iā€™ve read this year that Iā€™ve given one star. This book is completely marketed wrong. Not a thriller by any means. More of just a family/rich people drama. (And even with that being said, itā€™s still a whole lot of nothing.) The author includes way way WAYYY too many details of random, pointless things throughout the book instead of writing actual story. And this is clearly done, in my opinion, just to fill the pages up. Iā€™m assuming she does this to pace the story and not give too much away too soon. But, itā€™s done so poorly. I would start reading a chapter that would begin with a small crumb of story and then the author would just divulge into a TON of pointless details that didnā€™t matter in the end and would go on for so long, I literally forgot what the beginning of the chapter was even about.

This book claimed that it was going to be about the aunt searching for Nicole and eventually find out her ā€œdarkest secretsā€ and that she was involved in something so dark and mysterious ooooh!!! But really, there were no dark secrets and nothing mysterious about this book. The twists were bland and no where near thrilling. (Again, just revealing a bunch of family drama and reasons why the family had beef and using those things as a ā€œtwistā€, when really and the story does this over and over again as if we didnā€™t see it coming a mile away.)

The ending was extremely rushed and, as another reviewer here on GoodReads put it, ā€œa hot messā€. And I couldnā€™t put it better myself. I hate it when a random plot twist (that barely makes any sense) is written into the story just to add a bit of that ā€œshockingā€ twistiness that the reader has been waiting for for a whole 298 pages. But itā€™s so rushed and clearly so forced, you canā€™t help but roll your eyes and say ā€œAre you serious?ā€, out loud to yourself in the coffee shop youā€™re reading this book in. Plus, the book is again, written with so many pointless, random, annoyingly unnecessary details that the book feels way longer than it actually is. So by the time you get to the big ā€œplot twistsā€, you donā€™t even care anymore because youā€™ve pretty much guessed everything thatā€™s gonna happen and it took so long to get there, you donā€™t care. This book makes 303 pages feel like 503 pages.


Thereā€™s only one detail that was mentioned in this book that had significance in the end, which was the pear tree. And once the author started giving into what that all meant, it was actually gorgeous, beautiful, somewhat thrilling writing. I just wish I didnā€™t have to wait until literally the very end to get that writing. I loved learning about the different aspects and complexities about Nigerian culture here. There were some extra things I didnā€™t know before that I now know (like how some Nigerians will wrap their mangoes newspaper so that they will ripen quicker.) That was an interesting quip, as well as a few other ones. But the majority of Nigerian facts in this book, I feel like these are things most people (atleast black people), already know about Nigerian culture.

All in all, if you love family/rich people dramas, this is definitely for you. If you love thrilling, heart pounding, or at the very least, mysterious thrillers, you can absolutely skip this one.

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