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now_booking's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
It’s hard for me to rate this because I think it’s a good book and I did like it a lot but I had “buts…”. I thought it was fabulously well-written in terms of the language. Admittedly, this was a “Bookstagram made me do it” pick. I didn’t read the synopsis and yearn to check it out. But so many bookish social media friends had raved about it so I couldn’t be left out. Besides the title had me intrigued and I was promised there would be food.
The premise of this novel is that Kambirinachi, mother of Taiye and Kehinde, is an Ogbanje, who has struggled since birth to stay tethered to the world as a human being. Perhaps it is as a result of this, that her life has been assaulted by tragedy at every turn, her “kin” or other-worldly spirits using the experiences to taunt her back to the spirit world. Because of this, Kambirinachi is a somewhat unavailable mother to Taiye and Kehinde, despite her best intentions, leaving them vulnerable to a devastation that finally tears the family apart. Now for the first time in years the family is gathered again in Lagos and this might be their one chance to discover if healing is possible.
I liked this book and I can tell why so many people love it. The writing and use of language is lovely and evocative, the experiences are realistic and recognizable to the Nigerian experience. The author captured the swallowed pain and silence of a family who has gone through trauma so well and as for the way she writes about food, it’s absolutely delicious and visceral- you smell the smells and taste her words. The story is told by 3 different narrators telling the story interchangeably from both past and future. It’s a testament to the author’s skill that it’s pretty straightforward to keep the story straight. And even more testament to the author’s brilliance how she pieces together the commonality of the protagonists’ experiences around butter, honey, pig or bread. How she jigsaw puzzle fits overlapping experiences at different times to fit into a solid whole without rehashing old tales we already know. In this way, the author crafted a cohesive story that was well put together in spite of all moving parts of different protagonists, different character perspectives , and different timelines.
For me, this wavered between 3 stars and 5 stars. The food for certain, was the 5 stars. Every single time food was on the page, every time the author mentioned a high quality butter, or a high grade lard, or mentioned roasting spices in rich coconut oil, or talked about Nigerian raw honey in such luxurious language, or described the decadance of the pig and the spicy heat of suya or talked about the varieties of bread and the yeasty doughy texture of Nigerian bread! How can anyone not grade this 5 stars for the food alone! The author’s love and admiration for food came out to shine in this book and that was my favourite part of this novel. The author would mire you in trauma and grief and then comfort feed you so your belly would be as full as your heart and the reading less painful for that.
For me, the 3-star rating hovered through large swathes of the middle of the book. This starts off so well and so strongly. The first 20% of the book, I was consumed by the story, entranced by the characters. But then it kind of became very much Taiye’s story, which was fine. I liked Taiye. But I kept wanting more. I wanted more of a balance in the stories. If this was Taiye’s book, that would be fine, but we got just enough of Kehinde and Kambirinachi that I felt like surely, they deserved as much care and intention as Taiye got. I feel like we dwelled A LOT in Taiye’s varied expressions of trauma but only sort of skimmed the surface of Kehinde and to a lesser extent, Kambirinachi. And sure it could just be that Kambirinachi lived so much in her head that there wasn’t much story for her out of it that couldn’t be captured in “her kin was calling her,” and fine, maybe Kehinde, was just a million times more boring and straight-laced than Taiye and had no friends or story to carry more plot with her, maybe that’s why this felt a lot like a book about Taiye’s self-destruction stemming from family trauma, rather than a book about all 3, where I was actively curious about all 3. There’s a point in the novel where Taiye says she’s tired of her own BS and at that point in the novel, perhaps that was intentioned by the author, because I was pretty sick of Taiye as well by then. I mean at that point I had gotten the point of why she was self-destructive, how it manifested and why. And it was a repeatedly destructive cycle that kind of dragged around in the middle portion of the book. And with having 3 protagonists, I don’t think this was a book that needed to drag at all, given how quickly (and somewhat rushed) the ending was. If this was to be a story about healing, for me it needed a little more time on the pages to marinate. More steps, more coverage, more scenes. That part of the story felt a little last gasp to me and I would have liked to see more build towards the resolution, it was kind of a smash-bang, one-and-done sort of drive to the finish that felt kind of inconsistent with the indulgence with which the rest of the story had been told.
This is only the second book I’ve read featuring an Ogbanje woman and the psychological, mental and emotional traumas associated with that existence. In that sense, this is similar to Freshwater (by Akwaeke Emezi) but that’s about where the similarities end. Both books are about Ogbanje but this book deserves its own separate moment because its approach and sensibility and style are pretty different even if the themes are quite similar. This book examines generational trauma, abandonment, child abuse, difficult mother-daughter relationships, sexuality, sexual assault and abuse, homophobia (and indeed internalized homophobia), fatphobia (along with eating disorders), religion, love, trauma, family and loss in the most heartbreaking ways. If there is any trauma you have that could be triggering, tread carefully in approaching this book. It is beautifully written but would be unrelentingly sad if not that the author always pops up with the most delicious food so that your eyes can feast your sorrows away, at least till you have to eat the next wave of pain with the characters.
I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a really meaningful and heartbreaking story of mothers and daughters and spirits, with a Nigerian queer protagonist and lots and lots of yummy food. There are even loose recipes in the prose if that sweetens the pot (it should, they’re worth checking out). Prepare your heart for breakage, but definitely check this out.
The premise of this novel is that Kambirinachi, mother of Taiye and Kehinde, is an Ogbanje, who has struggled since birth to stay tethered to the world as a human being. Perhaps it is as a result of this, that her life has been assaulted by tragedy at every turn, her “kin” or other-worldly spirits using the experiences to taunt her back to the spirit world. Because of this, Kambirinachi is a somewhat unavailable mother to Taiye and Kehinde, despite her best intentions, leaving them vulnerable to a devastation that finally tears the family apart. Now for the first time in years the family is gathered again in Lagos and this might be their one chance to discover if healing is possible.
I liked this book and I can tell why so many people love it. The writing and use of language is lovely and evocative, the experiences are realistic and recognizable to the Nigerian experience. The author captured the swallowed pain and silence of a family who has gone through trauma so well and as for the way she writes about food, it’s absolutely delicious and visceral- you smell the smells and taste her words. The story is told by 3 different narrators telling the story interchangeably from both past and future. It’s a testament to the author’s skill that it’s pretty straightforward to keep the story straight. And even more testament to the author’s brilliance how she pieces together the commonality of the protagonists’ experiences around butter, honey, pig or bread. How she jigsaw puzzle fits overlapping experiences at different times to fit into a solid whole without rehashing old tales we already know. In this way, the author crafted a cohesive story that was well put together in spite of all moving parts of different protagonists, different character perspectives , and different timelines.
For me, this wavered between 3 stars and 5 stars. The food for certain, was the 5 stars. Every single time food was on the page, every time the author mentioned a high quality butter, or a high grade lard, or mentioned roasting spices in rich coconut oil, or talked about Nigerian raw honey in such luxurious language, or described the decadance of the pig and the spicy heat of suya or talked about the varieties of bread and the yeasty doughy texture of Nigerian bread! How can anyone not grade this 5 stars for the food alone! The author’s love and admiration for food came out to shine in this book and that was my favourite part of this novel. The author would mire you in trauma and grief and then comfort feed you so your belly would be as full as your heart and the reading less painful for that.
For me, the 3-star rating hovered through large swathes of the middle of the book. This starts off so well and so strongly. The first 20% of the book, I was consumed by the story, entranced by the characters. But then it kind of became very much Taiye’s story, which was fine. I liked Taiye. But I kept wanting more. I wanted more of a balance in the stories. If this was Taiye’s book, that would be fine, but we got just enough of Kehinde and Kambirinachi that I felt like surely, they deserved as much care and intention as Taiye got. I feel like we dwelled A LOT in Taiye’s varied expressions of trauma but only sort of skimmed the surface of Kehinde and to a lesser extent, Kambirinachi. And sure it could just be that Kambirinachi lived so much in her head that there wasn’t much story for her out of it that couldn’t be captured in “her kin was calling her,” and fine, maybe Kehinde, was just a million times more boring and straight-laced than Taiye and had no friends or story to carry more plot with her, maybe that’s why this felt a lot like a book about Taiye’s self-destruction stemming from family trauma, rather than a book about all 3, where I was actively curious about all 3. There’s a point in the novel where Taiye says she’s tired of her own BS and at that point in the novel, perhaps that was intentioned by the author, because I was pretty sick of Taiye as well by then. I mean at that point I had gotten the point of why she was self-destructive, how it manifested and why. And it was a repeatedly destructive cycle that kind of dragged around in the middle portion of the book. And with having 3 protagonists, I don’t think this was a book that needed to drag at all, given how quickly (and somewhat rushed) the ending was. If this was to be a story about healing, for me it needed a little more time on the pages to marinate. More steps, more coverage, more scenes. That part of the story felt a little last gasp to me and I would have liked to see more build towards the resolution, it was kind of a smash-bang, one-and-done sort of drive to the finish that felt kind of inconsistent with the indulgence with which the rest of the story had been told.
This is only the second book I’ve read featuring an Ogbanje woman and the psychological, mental and emotional traumas associated with that existence. In that sense, this is similar to Freshwater (by Akwaeke Emezi) but that’s about where the similarities end. Both books are about Ogbanje but this book deserves its own separate moment because its approach and sensibility and style are pretty different even if the themes are quite similar. This book examines generational trauma, abandonment, child abuse, difficult mother-daughter relationships, sexuality, sexual assault and abuse, homophobia (and indeed internalized homophobia), fatphobia (along with eating disorders), religion, love, trauma, family and loss in the most heartbreaking ways. If there is any trauma you have that could be triggering, tread carefully in approaching this book. It is beautifully written but would be unrelentingly sad if not that the author always pops up with the most delicious food so that your eyes can feast your sorrows away, at least till you have to eat the next wave of pain with the characters.
I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a really meaningful and heartbreaking story of mothers and daughters and spirits, with a Nigerian queer protagonist and lots and lots of yummy food. There are even loose recipes in the prose if that sweetens the pot (it should, they’re worth checking out). Prepare your heart for breakage, but definitely check this out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Chronic illness, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Alcoholism
bookishcori's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
unphilosophize's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-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
5.0
This book has deeply hurt me and I loved it.
It is such a deeply emotional read. So raw and real.
I will think about this book for a long time.
Friends, expect this as a gift in the coming months (if you want a copy)
I have so much love for this book.
It is such a deeply emotional read. So raw and real.
I will think about this book for a long time.
Friends, expect this as a gift in the coming months (if you want a copy)
I have so much love for this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Moderate: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Car accident
mezzarella's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-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
4.0
Francesca Ekwuyasi has made literary strides in her debut, Butter Honey Pig Bread. A generational story featuring a mother and her twin daughters, this story is slow-paced but rewarding in its delivery. It's easy to feel empathetic for each of the characters, who all have their own traumas rooted in fear or abandonment. Kambirinachi is a Obangi, meant only to haunt a family and die. Instead, Kambirinachi decides to live her life as a human, after the birth of her twins, Kehinde and Taiye. Due to "The Bad Thing," which happed to Kehinde as a child, Kehinde estranges herself from Taiye and her mother. Taiye, now facing her own flavor of abandonment, also leaves home and grows up overcompensating her loss through lustful and casual encounters with women. When all three women finally come together and admit their feelings to each other, the sensation is deeply satisfying for the reader.
While reading the book, it was clear that Ekwuyasi's strength is in her absolutely gorgeous writing. The detail and style of the book certainly doesn't feel like a debut novelist wrote it, especially as different foods and cultural aspects of the story are highlighted. This is a book to be savored, as if were a favorite childhood meal. I would highly recommend reading this book in a group setting, where aspects of the characters' personalities, trauma, and purpose are contemplated fully. Kambirinachi's story can also be interpreted as a journey through mental illness. The whole novel speaks to the theme of food and culture. These concepts are appreciated more through a deeper and more meaningful consumption of the text, which is acquired mostly through slower and deliberate reading.
Before reading, be mindful that while the writing is decadent, there are quite a number of content warnings which a reader should consider before reading. Some of the content in this book can be deeply triggering, especially considering the detail which exists within the novel.
While reading the book, it was clear that Ekwuyasi's strength is in her absolutely gorgeous writing. The detail and style of the book certainly doesn't feel like a debut novelist wrote it, especially as different foods and cultural aspects of the story are highlighted. This is a book to be savored, as if were a favorite childhood meal. I would highly recommend reading this book in a group setting, where aspects of the characters' personalities, trauma, and purpose are contemplated fully. Kambirinachi's story can also be interpreted as a journey through mental illness. The whole novel speaks to the theme of food and culture. These concepts are appreciated more through a deeper and more meaningful consumption of the text, which is acquired mostly through slower and deliberate reading.
Before reading, be mindful that while the writing is decadent, there are quite a number of content warnings which a reader should consider before reading. Some of the content in this book can be deeply triggering, especially considering the detail which exists within the novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism, Bullying, and Abortion
mirichasha's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-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
5.0
Butter Honey Pig Bread follows Kambirinachi and her twin daughters Kehinde and Taiye, in alternating points of view, throughout the time of their relationships, as well as Kambirinachi's childhood. Their familial relationship is complicated, especially after Kehinde's rape as a child, which she couldn't forgive her mother and sister for not stopping. It's messy, but they all love each other, and the story, while it meanders into the particulars of each MC's life, follows the thread of their relationship as it changes.
This book has one of my favorite queer friendships I’ve ever read (between lesbian Taiye and femme gay man(?) Timi), a mostly Black cast, and takes place kind of all over the world (except the US) in Nigeria and England and France and Canada and probably more. And the intergenerational aspects and magical realism (slash like, Igbo beliefs I think? Unsure how realistic vs heightened it is) are so good and interesting. And I saw someone on Goodreads say that the tender intimacy of cooking together or cooking for those we love and other aspects of like, presence, is something we don’t get to have in COVID times, and that is central throughout this book.
There are so many trigger warnings but it’s also just so full of realness and heartbreaking beauty and the RELATIONSHIPS are all so complex but truthful. And full of love in ways that sometimes hurt and sometimes heal and sometimes are full of joy. The book ends on a bittersweet and hopeful note. I truly recommend this for anyone who can handle the trigger warnings because it's absolutely beautiful, and true to title, a mix of sweet, meaty, hearty, filling, and decadent.
Specifically about the audiobook - I really liked it! Sometimes audiobooks feel like they're an almost separate thing from the book, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, but this narrator subtly embodied the characters in a way where I didn't really feel like I was listening to a performance, just reading a book. I did get pretty confused in the beginning and ended up taking out an ebook copy from my library to follow along with the beginning again to make sure I understood who the different characters were and how they related to each other. That's probably a mix of my own memory/attention span, and the early confusion of alternating point of view chapters with names I am not used to (and with the names of the POV characters only introduced at the beginning of each chapter, and not textually listed, at least on NetGalley, on the section of the audio I was listening to). As I am not familiar with a lot of the words and names, having the audiobook was probably best as I got to hear pronunciation.
I was provided free access to an audiobook copy by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book has one of my favorite queer friendships I’ve ever read (between lesbian Taiye and femme gay man(?) Timi), a mostly Black cast, and takes place kind of all over the world (except the US) in Nigeria and England and France and Canada and probably more. And the intergenerational aspects and magical realism (slash like, Igbo beliefs I think? Unsure how realistic vs heightened it is) are so good and interesting. And I saw someone on Goodreads say that the tender intimacy of cooking together or cooking for those we love and other aspects of like, presence, is something we don’t get to have in COVID times, and that is central throughout this book.
There are so many trigger warnings but it’s also just so full of realness and heartbreaking beauty and the RELATIONSHIPS are all so complex but truthful. And full of love in ways that sometimes hurt and sometimes heal and sometimes are full of joy. The book ends on a bittersweet and hopeful note. I truly recommend this for anyone who can handle the trigger warnings because it's absolutely beautiful, and true to title, a mix of sweet, meaty, hearty, filling, and decadent.
Specifically about the audiobook - I really liked it! Sometimes audiobooks feel like they're an almost separate thing from the book, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, but this narrator subtly embodied the characters in a way where I didn't really feel like I was listening to a performance, just reading a book. I did get pretty confused in the beginning and ended up taking out an ebook copy from my library to follow along with the beginning again to make sure I understood who the different characters were and how they related to each other. That's probably a mix of my own memory/attention span, and the early confusion of alternating point of view chapters with names I am not used to (and with the names of the POV characters only introduced at the beginning of each chapter, and not textually listed, at least on NetGalley, on the section of the audio I was listening to). As I am not familiar with a lot of the words and names, having the audiobook was probably best as I got to hear pronunciation.
I was provided free access to an audiobook copy by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism, Bullying, and Abortion
Hallucinations could potentially be a warning but it’s more like magical realism based on Igbo beliefs as far as I can tell.