A review by zhelana
Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Nigeria Jones has been raised her whole life in a black separatist movement cult. Her parents haven't even sent her to school instead insisting that she watch movies about slavery and write papers and books that her father publishes as his own about black nationalism. Her mother disappears and then her mother's friend gives her a letter offering her admission to a private school. A very white private school. She decides to go and this is the coming of age story that follows along with unwrapping the mystery of her mother's disappearance. In the end, Nigeria finds a way to combine her two selves - the childhood self of the movement and the adult self of The United States along with newfound knowledge of her mother. I don't think anything particularly shocking happened in this book. It was mostly just a 16 year old rebelling against the way she was raised. In fact the most surprising and unbelievable thing about it was that this private school allowed a teenager to go there for two months after her father told them he forbade them from educating his child. I mean surely this is some kind of a crime they are committing? It's so hard to believe that they would keep this kid as long as they did that I can't give the book 5 stars. That was just too distracting. But otherwise, very good book.