Reviews - Purple Hibiscus | The StoryGraph

3.95k reviews for:

Purple Hibiscus

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4.18 AVERAGE

ladyettejin's review

5.0

dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

Content Warnings

steepingnarratives's review

3.5

dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Set in postcolonial Nigeria, 15 year old Kambili is the daughter of a wealthy owner of a newspaper company. You'd expect her to live a blissful life yet you find out her father is an extremely devout Catholic, who uses his religion as a scapegoat to terrorize and abuse both his kids and wife. "Papa" resents his own father for rejecting Catholicism and disowns him till the day of his death. He, himself could be seen as a product of his environment using the harsh methods in which he was raised to disciple his own children. The abused becomes the abuser. It shows the effects the west has had on Nigeria itself in the past centuries even to the smallest details of having to give yourself a European name to be baptized. Kambili later moves out with her brother Jaja to live with her much poorer aunt and, despite this, is where she is finally able to be herself. She falls in love with a priest and her eyes are opened to the different attitudes many have especially towards women - specifically those who struggled to conceive. I loved this story as it was filled with Nigerian traditions and shows insight into a different culture. I did find it a bit slow to start with but overall I would definitely recommend.