A review by yetanothersusan
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie

2.75

This book confused me. The first half I would have rated a 2 star but the second half would have been a 4 star. The first half was super slow and overly detailed to the point where I checked (multiple times) to confirm that it wasn't a memoir. There were too many events that didn't have any impact on the overall story but were described in way too many details. This caused my reading to slog along. Then at about the halfway mark, the narrator changes, the pace picks up, and events are explained in a much more enjoyable manner. Bad: some of the same events from the first half were rehashed again. Good: Not all the events were rehashed and the ones included made some sense. A perfect world would have been mixing the two parts together, relying mainly on the second half and adding some of the first half and cutting the book down by about 100 pages and making it engaging throughout. I also struggled with how the characters never gave each other the benefit of a doubt. Everyone went straight to being defensive and aggressive. Is that a cultural difference? Either way, it made me dislike the characters and question their version of "family." I enjoyed her first book much better.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.