A review by emilyreadthat
Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

I found myself resonating with a lot of the story, seeing both myself and my mother’s experiences—how Adah felt resigned to the life her culture has positioned her in but she continues to take radical steps to change those circumstances with her using literature as a way to empower herself and recenter her voice. She battles for autonomy while still falling victim to the men in her life’s controlling nature which gave a lot of the novel the feeling of one step forward and two steps back. The ending is ambiguous but perhaps that is the point; there is no happy or fairytale ending for Black Igbo women living abroad, but rather making do with what we have in hopes of gaining upward mobility and freedom from patriarchal oppression (both in our native culture and in the new, Western worlds we occupy) in whatever way we can.