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A review by blessing_aj
Lucky Girl by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu
adventurous
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
3.75
Soila could be said to be a lucky girl because she was born into wealth, raised by a mother that loves her, a grandmother that adores her and aunts that dote on her. However, suffocated by the weight of her mother’s expectations and the truth of the circumstances surrounding her father’s death, all Soila wants is to run away from home and start a new life in America.
Soila’s journey to achieving the freedom she yearned for throughout the book was fraught with so many challenges that I was surprised she was only 27, when the book was about to wrap up.
I think the author made a wise decision in setting this book in the era that she did because it helped to explain why a lot in the plot unraveled the way it did. But I hated some of it all the same.
For instance, while it may have been unpopular for a child raised in an African country and under strict religious and cultural practices to rebel against excessive parental control, I hated that Soila let her need for her mother’s approval dictate the terms of living for her for so long. Yet I am sure that there are people who find themselves in this situation IRL so maybe this was for them.
Conversely, I felt strangely satisfied with the idea of a compelling female protagonist whose voice is not often sure and dissenting but is rather careful and questioning about things she doesn’t understand. Not many strong female characters in women’s fiction are built like her.
I liked the close knit relationship between the sisters and the fact that Soila was absorbed into the fold. Yet I feel they could have done so much more to protect her from her mother’s excesses in the earlier stages of her life. Because while her mother could certainly have made better choices, I found it hard to judge her for what her actions were truly worth, because I recognize that she was carrying a lot of unresolved trauma around and ‘hurt people, hurt people’.
Having gone through everything in this book, it makes sense that the ending is a happy one, but I didn’t like that some of the resolutions came right out of the blue.
That said, I cringed every time Soila said things like ‘the African sun’ or “African drums’, and every other time she made some generalized statement about Africans.
Soila’s journey to achieving the freedom she yearned for throughout the book was fraught with so many challenges that I was surprised she was only 27, when the book was about to wrap up.
I think the author made a wise decision in setting this book in the era that she did because it helped to explain why a lot in the plot unraveled the way it did. But I hated some of it all the same.
For instance, while it may have been unpopular for a child raised in an African country and under strict religious and cultural practices to rebel against excessive parental control, I hated that Soila let her need for her mother’s approval dictate the terms of living for her for so long. Yet I am sure that there are people who find themselves in this situation IRL so maybe this was for them.
Conversely, I felt strangely satisfied with the idea of a compelling female protagonist whose voice is not often sure and dissenting but is rather careful and questioning about things she doesn’t understand. Not many strong female characters in women’s fiction are built like her.
I liked the close knit relationship between the sisters and the fact that Soila was absorbed into the fold. Yet I feel they could have done so much more to protect her from her mother’s excesses in the earlier stages of her life. Because while her mother could certainly have made better choices, I found it hard to judge her for what her actions were truly worth, because I recognize that she was carrying a lot of unresolved trauma around and ‘hurt people, hurt people’.
Having gone through everything in this book, it makes sense that the ending is a happy one, but I didn’t like that some of the resolutions came right out of the blue.
That said, I cringed every time Soila said things like ‘the African sun’ or “African drums’, and every other time she made some generalized statement about Africans.