Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

31 reviews

katiejohns's review

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.0

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thenovelmaura's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.0

I enjoyed this one and thought it was especially delightful to listen to! Maybe this is because I got to experience all of the narrator's lovely accents; it made me feel more immersed in the story. Overall, I liked the focus on remaining true to your values and refusing to acquiesce to societal, familial, and peer pressures. This book was at times hilarious but often poignant, particularly when Yinka's insecurities about her appearance came up. Colorism is a thing, y'all!

Although Yinka's goal is romance, the true outcome of the book is her character growth and the relationships she builds along the way. I'm only docking a star because it was a bit too long and I could feel myself growing impatient in some of the middle sections. Overall, this is a solid debut novel and I hope Damilola Blackburn is already working on her next one!

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vaniavela's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted 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

Yinka, a 30-year-old British Nigerian, has a good job, a big close-knit family and stable friendships. Everything is perfect, isn't it? The only catch is that she is single, and people (including her family) don't seem to let her forget it.

This story covers many topics, such as people's expectations and the pressure our family and culture put on us. It will also highlight some important themes such as colorism, and how it unfortunately influences the way relationships of all kinds (especially romantic ones) are sought and formed.

Yinka feels a lot of pressure from her family, all her friends seem to be getting married or having babies, which leads her to suffer constant comments. It was interesting to read a protagnist who saves her virginity for marriage and tries to be a light drinker.

Now on to negative aspects, I think this book is in the wrong genre. It's fine that there are mentions of religion, but since it covers so many aspects (there's praying, going to mass, even a non-believer character ends up getting into Christianity after making them reflect on it) I think the genre should have been Christian fiction, or at least something other than romantic comedy. It's not even a romance book, it's more of a self-love book. I also didn't like the pop culture references. And lastly, our main character has poor decision making skills, which made me angry at times.

Overall, I think it's a good book.

tw: death of a parent, death of a sibling, racism, mention of dieting, body shaming, cancer, fatphobia, grief.

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nicolaparty's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

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onemorepagecrew's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-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

5.0

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a wonderful book that is so much more than a romance story. In it we meet Yinka, a British Nigerian woman with an Oxford education, a good career, a solid friend group, and the constant pressure from her family to get married. When her cousin gets engaged, she sets a personal goal to find a date for the wedding and the reader joins her as she awkwardly meets a few potential dates.

The author captures the insecure inner dialogue so well that it’s easy to be equal parts cringing for and rooting for Yinka. But this story has more depth than the dating scenes and that’s what made me love it. Yinka’s friend group is easy to fall in love with, too, and each of those characters are also going through their own situations. There’s a mom of three young kids questioning the loyalty in her marriage, there’s an aromantic best friend who tries to keep Yinka from changing who she is to attract a man, and there’s work colleagues who morph from surface-level support into deeper-level friends. Yinka is also surrounded by her Nigerian aunties and feeling their pressures in love and work, save for one auntie who she can speak with vulnerably.

This story is funny and serious at the same time – you’ll laugh with Yinka in one chapter and then yearn to hug her in another as she works through her self-love journey. If you haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend it.

Bonus info: did you know that this book originally started as a short blog post by the author? It grew into this book as the author saw how many women were feeling the pressures of a relationship-obsessed society and she wanted to give a voice to these experiences.

Content warnings: Racism, Body shaming, Colorism, Texturism, Dysphoria, Death of Parent

Content Warnings