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A review by bookofcinz
The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe
3.0
A heartbreaking read in every sense of the word…
Chika Unigwe’s novel The Middle Daughter centers a wealthy Nigerian family. The father owns a printing business, the mother is a doctor in the public health system and they have three daughters- one is currently in America studying and the other two attends a private school in Nigeria. They are a very happy family, filled with hope and happiness for the future… that is until one night they get a call from America that changes the trajectory of their family and upends life as they know it.
The novel focuses on the middle daughter Nani, but is told from the perspective of the other daughter as well so you get a layered look into what is happening with the family. With dead circling the family, Nani grieves and thinks her mother and sister is not hurting because of how they decide to “move on with life”. She meets and forms a friendship with a Ephraim, a guy who is deeply religious, quotes the Bible and has a very verbose vocabulary that he loves to show off. What started off as a bit of a joke, morphs into something dark.
First let me say- I was warned twice before reading this book that is was very heavy and covered dark themes that will leave your soul aching. I am not sure I was prepared enough because in reading this I got very angry. The writing of this book will have you feeling a lot of different ways and I guess that is the mark of a good writer.
I am going to go ahead and say this, yes I believe women- but I feel like this was not believable Nani did not explore ALL her options and I think that is what left me feeling so MAD and ANGRY with her as a character. She just went right with it- didn’t talk to her Aunty, her sister anyone. Yes I get that there was a lot of shame- BUT for her to fall into that other option it just didn’t seem to make sense to me. Maybe it is not for me to make sense of this. I also felt that the book wrapped up entirely too fast and the author needed an additional 75 pages to really end the book properly.
Overall, is just heartache, pain, sadness and darkness.
Chika Unigwe’s novel The Middle Daughter centers a wealthy Nigerian family. The father owns a printing business, the mother is a doctor in the public health system and they have three daughters- one is currently in America studying and the other two attends a private school in Nigeria. They are a very happy family, filled with hope and happiness for the future… that is until one night they get a call from America that changes the trajectory of their family and upends life as they know it.
The novel focuses on the middle daughter Nani, but is told from the perspective of the other daughter as well so you get a layered look into what is happening with the family. With dead circling the family, Nani grieves and thinks her mother and sister is not hurting because of how they decide to “move on with life”. She meets and forms a friendship with a Ephraim, a guy who is deeply religious, quotes the Bible and has a very verbose vocabulary that he loves to show off. What started off as a bit of a joke, morphs into something dark.
First let me say- I was warned twice before reading this book that is was very heavy and covered dark themes that will leave your soul aching. I am not sure I was prepared enough because in reading this I got very angry. The writing of this book will have you feeling a lot of different ways and I guess that is the mark of a good writer.
I am going to go ahead and say this, yes I believe women- but I feel like this was not believable Nani did not explore ALL her options and I think that is what left me feeling so MAD and ANGRY with her as a character. She just went right with it- didn’t talk to her Aunty, her sister anyone. Yes I get that there was a lot of shame- BUT for her to fall into that other option it just didn’t seem to make sense to me. Maybe it is not for me to make sense of this. I also felt that the book wrapped up entirely too fast and the author needed an additional 75 pages to really end the book properly.
Overall, is just heartache, pain, sadness and darkness.