Reviews - Maame | The StoryGraph

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this is quite an easy read and i enjoy it up until the last page. as someone who also overthinks too much for her own good, i can relate to maddie, but only up to a certain level because i don’t really google things like “how to go on a first date?” (btw maddie, u would’ve loved chatgpt)

i do feel like the writing is kind of, for the lack of a better word, inconsistent? some parts are good, great even, but the other parts kind of falls flat. given maddie’s situation, i was expecting something a little bit more.. intense. it does got better at the second half though, when things started to fall into place

(maddie’s naivety is another issue but i just accept it as a part of her character for now) (and she did learn to be better after that so)

i wish we could’ve gotten more about her relationship with her family though, because that’s sort of the issue on why she ended up like that at her age. the romance and (inevitably) the sex parts are a little unnecessary for me

overall a 3.5/5

karabacon's review against another edition

4.0

4⭐️

I think this was a good book. I listened to this on audible and I really liked the narration and accent. I wanted something that was wholesome and although I don’t think this was “give me a hug” wholesome, it was definitely an “I appreciate the lessons learned and how well rounded it is” wholesome book. This is a “getting your life together” book done right. The main character is 25 and I can relate with her on many topics. She was dealing with a lot of race, religion, friendship, relationship, career, loss issues and it showed how she navigated it. I think that sometimes it felt a little adolescent because she was experiencing a lot of things for the first time later in life, but at the same time it wasn’t her fault. She had a lot of weight to carry and a lot of responsibilities that prevented her from just enjoying her youth and adulting like the rest of us. I was happy when she eventually opened up to release the burdens that had been holding her down and causing her to be depressed and anxious. She experienced a lot of growth and I think that the book ended nicely.

pdotbdot's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

laurenrosebaer's review against another edition

4.0

I really just wanted more out of the ending but I suppose that’s life. Not everything comes to some great crescendo. It’s a very realistic story of family, the weight of parent’s failings, and how friends can be everything and nothing.

It was slightly jarring every time they mentioned temperature and it being clearly in °F despite being set in London. I don’t know if that would bother anyone else but a transplant reading the US version.

I rarely read the acknowledgments but the ones for Maame were actually interesting and pertinent to the story. Wholesome.

tarainez's review against another edition

5.0

This was amazing. Funny, heartbreaking, realistic. I loved Maddie and all of her complexity. It sounds like she might have a lot in common with the author who wrote her story, which gives this story such a rawness to it. This tackled a lot: caring for a sick loved one, grief, broken familial relations, issues of consent surrounding sex, micro aggressions to POCs, depression/anxiety, you name it. The tone changes about halfway through, but the story was so seamless that it didn’t feel like I was reading a different book; it felt like real life. All of the hype this one’s getting is well-deserved.