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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy
Minor: Grief
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was amazing and a very quick read. You can see the consequences of democratic backsliding in a way that isn’t the main focus. The author does a wonderful job fleshing out the wants vs the needs of the characters in a personable way. I do wish we got to know if what happened to the main character in the same way we know what happens to her family. I will say it is one of the first mc’s who doesn’t have a traditional sense of agency. While sometimes it is refreshing you can’t help but be a bit annoyed. I think a proper ending or some mention would have been complete. The ending was dependent on a person/idea but I wish it was just about her. Though maybe that was the point and we only saw the beginning of her agency
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
reflective
fast-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
I really enjoyed Purple Hibiscus. Its prose holds a simplicity to understand while still being poetic that makes it seem as if the ideas and characters are simple, when they are actually quite complex. You hate the father for being an abuser, yet he supports a whole community with his money and is the publisher for a newspaper that defies the dictatorial regime; you blame the mother for not speaking up against her husband when they suffer their father's abuse, yet she is just another victim of said abuse.
The story could also be painted as simple, as another coming of age, following 15-year-old Kambili into her transition into adulthood. Yet, themes of religion, colonialism, social class, feminism and politics drive the story. And despite these heavy themes, it still is a story about growth, about Kambili finding happiness and herself.
I know nothing about Nigeria and Igbo culture, and Ngozi Adichie is not explaining it to you. I loved that. We are just thrown into Kambili's world, seeing her day to day in her own culture. It is not explained as a crafted dystopian-like world, as developing nations often are. You are just supposed to know, as Kambili does. I was googling like crazy to know more, and I have developed a curiosity for Nigerian culture I did not have before thanks to this book.
The story could also be painted as simple, as another coming of age, following 15-year-old Kambili into her transition into adulthood. Yet, themes of religion, colonialism, social class, feminism and politics drive the story. And despite these heavy themes, it still is a story about growth, about Kambili finding happiness and herself.
I know nothing about Nigeria and Igbo culture, and Ngozi Adichie is not explaining it to you. I loved that. We are just thrown into Kambili's world, seeing her day to day in her own culture. It is not explained as a crafted dystopian-like world, as developing nations often are. You are just supposed to know, as Kambili does. I was googling like crazy to know more, and I have developed a curiosity for Nigerian culture I did not have before thanks to this book.
Quotes:
- "Didn’t he know that I did not want him to leave, ever? That I did not need to be persuaded to go to the stadium, or anywhere, with him? The afternoon played across my mind as I got out of the car in front of the flat. I had smiled, run, laughed. My chest was filled with something like bath foam. Light. The lightness was so sweet I tasted it on my tongue, the sweetness of an overripe bright yellow cashew fruit.”"
- "“It was what Aunty Ifeoma did to my cousins, I realized then, setting higher and higher jumps for them in the way she talked to them, in what she expected of them. She did it all the time believing they would scale the rod. And they did. It was different for Jaja and me. We did not scale the rod because we believed we could, we scaled it because we were terrified that we couldn’t.”"
- "“Every day our doctors go there and end up washing plates for oyinbo because oyinbo does not think we study medicine right. Our lawyers go and drive taxis because oyinbo does not trust how we train them in law [...].” “The educated ones leave, the ones with the potential to right the wrongs. They leave the weak behind. The tyrants continue to reign because the weak cannot resist. Do you not see that it is a cycle? Who will break that cycle?”"
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Another outstanding piece by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Just extraordinary.
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Death of parent
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
- Really well written, the prose is really evocative but very simple at the same time.
- I really feel for the Kambili - I can really feel her uncomfortable-ness, her naivety, her scaredness, her loneliness through the pages.
- I can feel her stillness and locked-in behaviour any time anything happens, and I really feel like I'm there with her. Perhaps this is because my own upbringing has some parallels so I feel connected to her emotions.
- The dad was such an interesting and well written character. He was categorically a terrible person because of his physical and mental abuse of his wife and kids, but the author was also able to make him generous and likable to the wider community. I thought this was excellently written as bad people are never pure evil in real life - there will always be someone who has a reason to like/love them. (although I cannot stress this enough - he was a terrible person and I hated him).
- Kambili's friendship with the priest was a bit weird. I don't really know what to make of it - was it a teenager getting infatuated with an older man and overestimating what was happening, or was it a priest taking an almost-romantic special interest in an underage girl?
- I really liked getting a glimpse into what life can be like in Nigeria, and I really appreciated the more realistic and less sanitised version Kambili's aunt gave us. Her connection to the university and wanting to further societal progress was well written and interesting to read.
- The depiction of and commentary on missionary Christianity was also very well done. It was really interesting to see how the white saviour complex infiltrated and overhauled people's ways of life, and just how distructive it can be.
- Side note: I found after I read this that the author is pretty transphobic, which I do not condone or agree with. Although I really enjoyed this story and was interested in picking up some of her other books, I have decided not to support her given her views.