Reviews - Americanah | The StoryGraph

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10.6k reviews for:

Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4.34 AVERAGE

evkpepper's review against another edition

3.5

challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

itsbexrex's review against another edition

3.0

I've been sitting here trying to articulate what it is exactly about this book that didn't hit the mark for me. There is so much about this story that is beautiful and important and wonderfully written. Ifemelu's perspective was so good and I really appreciated reading about her experiences, especially in America and what it was like moving back to Nigeria after spending so much of her early adulthood in the States. But I think it was a little too long (about 600 pages) and dragged at the end. Plus the love story between Ifemelu and Obinze was my least favorite aspect of this book. I didn't mind their young love but I kinda wish it had stayed in the past.

mariasg_01's review against another edition

5.0

Me hubiera gustado otro final pero me ha gustado mucho

raquel_snr's review against another edition

2.0

I went into this book pretty convinced that I would love it. I had previously read "Purple Hibiscus" and "We Should All Be Feminists" and loved both of them. In both instances, I found Chimamanda's writing absolutely gorgeous and her point of view seemed to always be very relevant.

Spoiler

SPOILERY RANT
This book started out strong, I was really enjoying it but I started rolling my eyes the first time we hear about Obinze's marriage. How come that every time there's a love triangle one the people (usually the one who's left out) needs to be portrayed as evil and unworthy? I don't get it. Never in any point in the novel do we get a plausible explanation for Obinze's marriage or do we see any empathy from him towards his wife.
Then, it came the way characters were overly sexuallized - cringy and unnecessary.
After this, I still had some hope in the novel but I realized I had spent a lot of pages reading about Ifemelu and still couldn't grasp the reason for some of her ~~stupid~~ decisions. Secondary characters seemed flatter and flatter and my interest got completely lost. I should have DNF'ed this but I still had hopes...

Besides all that I disliked about the narrative, the discussions on race and immigration were so very important for me to read about, as a white woman living in Europe in a very white neighborhood. I gained a valuable perspective by reading it. Discussions like this are the reason I read.