Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - Maame

This book manages to toe an incredibly difficult line: being both incredibly charming and completely gut wrenching. It tells the story of Maddie, a 25-year-old Ghanaian woman living in London, who's the primary caretaker for her father who has Parkinson's.

Maddie is an incredibly well-written, real-feeling character: at times to the point of being infuriating to read. Her naïveté is understandable — she's grown up incredibly sheltered and is just learning to make her own decisions for the first time at 25 — but can be frustrating as a reader, when you can see situations more clearly than she can and have to wait for her to realize she's being mistreated or taken advantage of. Because the book is written solely from Maddie's perspective, however, it did leave many of the other characters feeling one-dimensional. And when Maddie finally realizes at the end of the book that "my actions can affect other people," it feels like too little, too late.

When thinking about what I liked most about this book, I feel drawn to its two emotional extremes. On one hand, I appreciated the raw, realistic depiction of what grief can do to a person, especially when that grief is complicated with feelings of regret. On the other, I most enjoyed the lighthearted scenes when Maddie was experiencing things like flirting, dancing in a club, or getting high for the first time. The "in betweens" of these two ends of the spectrum — tended to drag on for me, but they also made the story feel incredibly true to life, so I understand their purpose.

All in all, this is a stunning debut from Jessica George. Even more than the story itself, I appreciated her voice, her humor, and her writing style, and I'll gladly read whatever she publishes next.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!

Content Warnings

yadira315's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective

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

At first, I thought I wasn’t going to like this book because of all the inner monologue that was going on in the beginning, and I was not liking it, but once we get introduced to other characters, and our main character starts to want to explore and have different experiences of all of the stuff that she has missed the book gets so good. This was a great coming of age story. We see our main character Maddie go through so much and it really takes us on a roller coaster of emotions. Like I had all of the feels, and I love when a book is thought-provoking and has such a realistic approach to so many of the challenges that we have to face when it comes to family relationships, our work environment, our sexual explorations, and just searching for who we want to be as a person in this life. It was so fucking good. Our girl gets her happily ever after, and it just brought me so much joy.

I will definitely be buying a physical copy of this book. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC.

Content Warnings

mothebad's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The beginning of the book is downright atrocious I’m ngl. I did DNF for a while and then returned.

The MC’s voice was annoying and a pain to be in at the beginning because despite being 25 she read as very juvenile. I understand she’s a late bloomer but somethings were too much for me.

The best part of this book were the conversations and moments around grief, it is clear that’s where George’s writing shines.

Everything else though was not very good. In an attempt to portray Maddie (MC) as naive and a late bloomer there were extremely biphobic things said/thought by our character. There was also a fatphobic comment. I wish Maddie was constructed with as much care as the grief storyline was, it would’ve made me care about her more.

Thank you St Martins Press for the ARC

Content Warnings

cee_ceon's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

jenmcreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This book was fantastic (and the audio is excellently narrated)! I went in fairly blind and ended up listening to the whole audiobook in one day. Maddie is such a well written character, and manages to balance her anxieties, her naivete, and her intelligence so realistically. I loved the ruminations on grief, challenging family dynamics, parentification, delayed adulthood, and modern dating, among other themes. This one is sticking in my mind for sure. I look forward to reading more from Jessica George I hope!

Content Warnings

internationalreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

Content Warnings

anastasia_raf's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad 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

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