A review by carlysgrowingtbr
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
5.0
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi is a unique and memorizing approach to understanding the difficulty of living with mental illness.
We begin with our main character, Ada. The story follows her as she is born and grows to adulthood dealing with two ancient entities within her. These gods talk with her and at times even control her body. As much as they seem to help Ada with certain situations, they also cause chaos and make her hard to exist alongside much of the time. The gods cause Ada to act violently and irrational and damage all of her personal relationships. Ada does seem aware of her otherness and it's issues through the book and takes several times to get help. However, she's often talked out of continuing treatment as the gods continue to exploit her vulnerability.
The book uses the old gods to explain Ada's violent behavior, including but not limited to self harm, promiscuity and fits of rage. It was a very interesting take on mental illness and a possible reasoning for it.
It took me a few tries to really get into this book. But once it stuck I was utterly hooked and couldn't step away. It was an excellent read.
We begin with our main character, Ada. The story follows her as she is born and grows to adulthood dealing with two ancient entities within her. These gods talk with her and at times even control her body. As much as they seem to help Ada with certain situations, they also cause chaos and make her hard to exist alongside much of the time. The gods cause Ada to act violently and irrational and damage all of her personal relationships. Ada does seem aware of her otherness and it's issues through the book and takes several times to get help. However, she's often talked out of continuing treatment as the gods continue to exploit her vulnerability.
The book uses the old gods to explain Ada's violent behavior, including but not limited to self harm, promiscuity and fits of rage. It was a very interesting take on mental illness and a possible reasoning for it.
It took me a few tries to really get into this book. But once it stuck I was utterly hooked and couldn't step away. It was an excellent read.