Reviews with content warning for Racism - Lucky Girl

Lucky Girl by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu was such a captivating read, I was in Soila’s corner from the start and felt like she was my friend until the end. If you enjoy coming-of-age stories that weave in familial and cultural expectations balanced against personal desires, then this is an excellent choice.

The story follows Soila, born and raised in Kenya, as she embarks on college in New York City. She navigates friendships, romantic relationships, and her career while trying to heal from the loss of her father and uncovering new information about her family. It’s her journey of personal identity and how she sees herself, and how others see her, in both Kenya and the U.S.

I found myself attached to Soila and her best friend from NYC, Leticia, feeling very into their journeys. I got mildly attached to her romantic interests and her family, but never fully sank into those characters. For me, part four (the last part) was a little rushed compared to the first three parts, but overall the story and where it landed felt good.

If you enjoy coming-of-age and immigration stories that weave in cross-cultural relationships and navigating parental expectations, this should be on your TBR.

Thank you so much to Dial Press and NetGalley, I was so thankful for the advanced copy - I appreciate you!

Content warnings: grief, racism, dementia, September 11th (first-hand perspective)

Content Warnings

goatsrsexy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring 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

5.0

Lucky girl is about Soila, who grows up very privileged but extremely sheltered in Kenya, and moves to America for school to get some freedom from her overbearing mother.

She struggles a lot at first to understand the African American experience and relationship to blackness and racism because it's so different from her own African experience. I really admired the way that although she had a hard time understanding where her friends were coming from, she quickly recognized that there were things she didn't understand and that she needed to put in effort to learn and view things through different lenses and let go of her own biases and misconceptions. She struggles with this throughout the book but you can also see her making huge progress with it. As a white Canadian, the difference between the African immigrant and African American experience isn't something I've ever given much thought to and it was super eye opening for me. I definitely feel that I gained a greater understanding of both cultures through Soila.

Soilas struggle with her mother's expectations was portrayed so well, it was so difficult for me to see her hurting herself and giving up things that were important to her in order to make her mother happy, but I was able to understand where she was coming from even though there was a lot I would have done differently. I loved the people in her life. Her aunts, grandma, friends and partners were all so loving and supportive and they all added so many different things to her life.

Lucky Girl deals with so many things in such a short book; racism and colourism, terrorism, sexual assault, grief, and a lot more than that too. It deals with a lot of heavy subjects and I definitely shed a few tears while reading, but it was also such a beautiful and hopeful story I honestly feel privileged to had read it. I can't believe this is the author's debut novel, I definitely can't wait to read more from her in the future. Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy!

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