becmurr57's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
5.0
An advance copy of a debut novel. Thank you Dial Press & Net Galley.
Solia is a girl raised in a fully female home in Kenya- it is her mother's home & her grandmother & her 3 aunts all live there. But Soila's mom rules the home, her sisters & of course Soila. They live a privileged life, and have a strong work ethic & own a family business. As Solia became an adolescent she knew this was not the life she wanted for her future. Her mother was overbearing, strongly opinionated & Solia felt no true love from her, no hugs, no tender moments.
Solia decides to apply to colleges in the US, unbeknownst to her mother & after much back & forth, her mother agrees to allow her to go to school in the states.
Once Solia gets the the US, finds her way at school & makes a few friends, we see struggles she has with being an African, vs what she sees or thinks of African Americans. She has never seen racism, doesn't grasp some of the issues that Black Americans have, especially young black men & people living in poverty.
She takes a job she doesn't like, can't share what her life is with her mom, has relationship issues. Most of Solia's struggles come from trying to please her mom- her mom wants total control- job, church, men, & as Solia gets older she gets hurt & angry with her mom.
There's relationships, friendships, guilt & some life events along the way.
Through it all, Soila tries to be the dutiful daughter, until she always can't.
I really felt for her- guilt placed on anyone is an awful thing.
I really enjoyed this book!
Solia is a girl raised in a fully female home in Kenya- it is her mother's home & her grandmother & her 3 aunts all live there. But Soila's mom rules the home, her sisters & of course Soila. They live a privileged life, and have a strong work ethic & own a family business. As Solia became an adolescent she knew this was not the life she wanted for her future. Her mother was overbearing, strongly opinionated & Solia felt no true love from her, no hugs, no tender moments.
Solia decides to apply to colleges in the US, unbeknownst to her mother & after much back & forth, her mother agrees to allow her to go to school in the states.
Once Solia gets the the US, finds her way at school & makes a few friends, we see struggles she has with being an African, vs what she sees or thinks of African Americans. She has never seen racism, doesn't grasp some of the issues that Black Americans have, especially young black men & people living in poverty.
She takes a job she doesn't like, can't share what her life is with her mom, has relationship issues. Most of Solia's struggles come from trying to please her mom- her mom wants total control- job, church, men, & as Solia gets older she gets hurt & angry with her mom.
There's relationships, friendships, guilt & some life events along the way.
Through it all, Soila tries to be the dutiful daughter, until she always can't.
I really felt for her- guilt placed on anyone is an awful thing.
I really enjoyed this book!
zedohee's review
3.0
Lucky Girl is good; with a little more finesse it could have been great.
The topic of an immigrant in a new country, navigating a big city and reconciling their old identity with the new life they’re trying to build isn’t especially new or fresh and I didn’t really expect Lucky Girl to break the mold. I did, though, expect a story that spans decades, about a privileged Kenyan girl embarking on a journey of self discovery and stepping into her own in America to be more intriguing, fun and captivating than it was.
The story begins when Soila is a child. Familial secrets are exposed and her mother’s ever tightening grip on her personhood only becomes more unbearable as she ages. By the time she graduates high-school, she’s ready not just to leave home, but the country. Within two years she’s moved to America and enrolled in college. These years pass by quickly; Soila graduates, gets a job and to me, this was when the book finally picked up. Before this, it read like the diary of an especially naive child, invoking one too many cliches for my liking. Once Soila entered young adulthood, I felt that Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu’s writing hit its stride. She focused less on plainly stating the differences between Kenya and America and rather, gave Soila varied, rich experiences that truly challenged her. She also asked meaningful and complex questions of the audience, making me question my own beliefs.
To me, Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu’s writing isn’t particularly lyrical or evocative, but instead, blunt. Direct. This is in-line with a lot of African literature but Lucky Girl in all its simplicity read as more YA than adult lit.
This juvenile slant was especially present within the romantic relationships, which feel underwhelmingly superficial. Soila is understandably conservative, but also pretty bland. I didn’t quite buy the main romance and that her love interest would be so taken by her.
Also, I could’ve done without the extensive focus on minutiae and irrelevant facts. In trying to display how out of her depth Soila was in her new world, the author rehashed tired, dated ideas that only bogged the book down in their repetition.
Her strengths are in the side characters. Other than maybe her aunt Tanei, none of them have larger than life personalities and for this book that worked. They came off as real and complex, with diverse beliefs and values. I really enjoyed reading about her four aunts and experiencing their growth alongside Soila. Honestly, half the time I cared far more for them than Soila herself. She just wasn’t a captivating character to me. Neither were her friends, who paled in comparison to her family and sometimes came off like stereotypes. Which, given Soila’s upbringing, opinion of America, African Americans and white Americans, tracked. Still, her early interactions with her best friend Leticia, were very stereotypical and dismissive and they didn’t immediately click or have any real spark, so I didn’t get why Leticia continued to reach out when Soila wasn’t all that nice or particularly charming. As time went on though, the girls bonded more organically and I was really sold on and enjoyed the friendship. They cared deeply for each other and had so much fun together, I wish their friendship had been explored more.
It’s a long journey but Soila eventually understands that her upbringing and beliefs are only that: hers. The world is a bigger and more complicated place than she imagined and expected and she tries to accept that. A lot of the conversations Soila had about black life in America and racism were exhausting and repetitive and after the third ‘but I don’t get it’ convo I was over Soila’s ignorance. She never quite seemed to grasp the severity of the situation. But this positioning and mindset is realistic. I’ve met many Soila’s and had tons of conversations with members of own family who simply don’t believe that racism is as bleak as ‘those abroad’ make it out to be. To them, it is an issue that is, at the least, slightly bothersome and at the most, ancient history. Like Soila, the idea that racism is a systemic issue that is entrenched in all areas of society simply goes over their heads because their lived experiences with colonialism and internalized racism differ and greatly color their outlook.
This book is exactly what it says on the tin and I while I wish it was a little more lively or complex, going in expecting more is probably why I had as many issues with it as I did. Not everyone is vivacious or outgoing and it’s only fair that their stories are told too. I’d recommend it to readers who like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels, people who would like to read about a Kenyan woman’s immigrant experience and older millennial/gen x African women who want to read about familiar experiences.
*ARC provided by NetGalley
The topic of an immigrant in a new country, navigating a big city and reconciling their old identity with the new life they’re trying to build isn’t especially new or fresh and I didn’t really expect Lucky Girl to break the mold. I did, though, expect a story that spans decades, about a privileged Kenyan girl embarking on a journey of self discovery and stepping into her own in America to be more intriguing, fun and captivating than it was.
The story begins when Soila is a child. Familial secrets are exposed and her mother’s ever tightening grip on her personhood only becomes more unbearable as she ages. By the time she graduates high-school, she’s ready not just to leave home, but the country. Within two years she’s moved to America and enrolled in college. These years pass by quickly; Soila graduates, gets a job and to me, this was when the book finally picked up. Before this, it read like the diary of an especially naive child, invoking one too many cliches for my liking. Once Soila entered young adulthood, I felt that Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu’s writing hit its stride. She focused less on plainly stating the differences between Kenya and America and rather, gave Soila varied, rich experiences that truly challenged her. She also asked meaningful and complex questions of the audience, making me question my own beliefs.
To me, Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu’s writing isn’t particularly lyrical or evocative, but instead, blunt. Direct. This is in-line with a lot of African literature but Lucky Girl in all its simplicity read as more YA than adult lit.
This juvenile slant was especially present within the romantic relationships, which feel underwhelmingly superficial. Soila is understandably conservative, but also pretty bland. I didn’t quite buy the main romance and that her love interest would be so taken by her.
Also, I could’ve done without the extensive focus on minutiae and irrelevant facts. In trying to display how out of her depth Soila was in her new world, the author rehashed tired, dated ideas that only bogged the book down in their repetition.
Her strengths are in the side characters. Other than maybe her aunt Tanei, none of them have larger than life personalities and for this book that worked. They came off as real and complex, with diverse beliefs and values. I really enjoyed reading about her four aunts and experiencing their growth alongside Soila. Honestly, half the time I cared far more for them than Soila herself. She just wasn’t a captivating character to me. Neither were her friends, who paled in comparison to her family and sometimes came off like stereotypes. Which, given Soila’s upbringing, opinion of America, African Americans and white Americans, tracked. Still, her early interactions with her best friend Leticia, were very stereotypical and dismissive and they didn’t immediately click or have any real spark, so I didn’t get why Leticia continued to reach out when Soila wasn’t all that nice or particularly charming. As time went on though, the girls bonded more organically and I was really sold on and enjoyed the friendship. They cared deeply for each other and had so much fun together, I wish their friendship had been explored more.
It’s a long journey but Soila eventually understands that her upbringing and beliefs are only that: hers. The world is a bigger and more complicated place than she imagined and expected and she tries to accept that. A lot of the conversations Soila had about black life in America and racism were exhausting and repetitive and after the third ‘but I don’t get it’ convo I was over Soila’s ignorance. She never quite seemed to grasp the severity of the situation. But this positioning and mindset is realistic. I’ve met many Soila’s and had tons of conversations with members of own family who simply don’t believe that racism is as bleak as ‘those abroad’ make it out to be. To them, it is an issue that is, at the least, slightly bothersome and at the most, ancient history. Like Soila, the idea that racism is a systemic issue that is entrenched in all areas of society simply goes over their heads because their lived experiences with colonialism and internalized racism differ and greatly color their outlook.
This book is exactly what it says on the tin and I while I wish it was a little more lively or complex, going in expecting more is probably why I had as many issues with it as I did. Not everyone is vivacious or outgoing and it’s only fair that their stories are told too. I’d recommend it to readers who like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels, people who would like to read about a Kenyan woman’s immigrant experience and older millennial/gen x African women who want to read about familiar experiences.
*ARC provided by NetGalley
kirachandlerreads's review
4.0
This was an incredibly rich coming of age story set in Kenya and New York City. The characters were larger than life and felt so real as I was reading.
It dealt with difficult topics in both an astute and sometimes dead pan funny sort of way. I highly recommend this one.
Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the e-arc.
It dealt with difficult topics in both an astute and sometimes dead pan funny sort of way. I highly recommend this one.
Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the e-arc.
venusreadsx's review
4.0
This book was surprisingly good. I loved the characters and plot of the story. I do wish the book was bit longer and I would love to see this book turned into some kind of movie.
jaded618's review
4.0
Amazing book, full of true emotion. I know I could never rate to this book as much as other readers, but I admire the story and characters so much.
The ending was as perfect as a reader could ask for. I cannot wait to read more from Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu.
The ending was as perfect as a reader could ask for. I cannot wait to read more from Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu.
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