Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - La vida secreta de las esposas de Baba Segi

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

La vida secreta de las esposas de Baba Segi by Lola Shoneyin

8 reviews

winchesterm89's review against another edition

5.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a great debut novel. It covered so many topics, including patriarchy, gender politics, classism, generational curses, sexual violence, child abuse/neglect. Wives 1-3 (Iya Segi, Iya Tope, and Iya Femi) were an interesting bunch. They’ve been greatly hurt by patriarchy yet became its willing co-conspirators when they felt “threatened” by an outsider. Their desire to break another woman resulted in them losing almost everything they accumulated at the being is the novel. Meanwhile, the woman (Bolanle) they tried to make a victim walked away the victor. Baba Segi is an example of how patriarchy also hurts men because he was willing to hide his children’s true paternity to protect his manhood (side note: I wish men understood that using women as a c*m buckets or fathering fifty-leven children does not make you man). Baba Segi entire existence was about getting validation from other men. I’m glad Bolanle had the strength to walk away as she slowly regained her confidence. I have so many other thoughts that are hard to flesh out right now. This would definitely be a good book club read.

Content Warnings

biblio_bri's review against another edition

5.0

dark funny tense fast-paced

This book has some very dark moments, some comedic relief, and a satisfying resolution. Very interesting plot, well developed characters. I loved the multiple perspectives.

Content Warnings

aura_rurubele's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

noahsingh's review against another edition

3.75

enjoyed the kinda girlboss ending for Bolanle and enjoyed a lot about the book, including the way it jumps between perspectives but unfortunately the combination of fatphobia, Segis death (which felt unnecessary to me idk), and lack of consequences for Iya Femi and Iya Segi (to an extent) for their role in Segis death, and Iya Topes (to me) quite sad ending stopped me from properly loving this book.

Content Warnings

danielnski's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

alisair's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thisread was truly enjoyable. I really loved that you got a chance to read the perspective of each wife as well as their husband. It allowed you to gain more insight on their childhood, and their background before they met their husband. You got the full essence of what their lives were like before and their traumatic experiences that molded their current personality. This also impacted the decisions they made within their lives. It was very fast paced and well written. I didn't necessarily love all the characters but I understood them. However, this book has some very triggering topics about abuse, so I would read with caution.

Content Warnings