Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Butter Honey Pig Bread

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.

Content Warnings

mirichasha's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

whatcassiedid's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense 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

Ekwuyasi's writing style is gorgeous, particularly the way she writes about food and cooking. I really loved this, each character was so fleshed out but in a way that didn't feel exposition-y. The twins not feeling like they belong kind of gave me Vanishing Half vibes, but this is a very different book.

Content Warnings

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