Book review: Purple Hibiscus by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
As you probably already know, if you've read the English essay that I published on here last week, I've been reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie for my first half term of English at college. Since it was an amazing novel and one that I would highly recommend reading, I thought that it would be suitable to give you a review of it today! I hope you enjoy and if it sounds right up your alley, I hope you give it a read yourself!🙂💜
Purple Hibiscus is a story that is set in postcolonial Nigeria where there is a lot of political instability. This is really a metaphor for what the main protagonist, Kambili, experiences inside her violent family home. Kambili's father, Papa Eugene, has been overcome by colonial rule and has decided to leave his native Igbo culture behind for his strict version of Catholicism. Due to his temper and radical religious beliefs, Papa Eugene believes it to be right to punish his family when they have sinned. The domestic abuse witnessed through a child's eye is painted beautifully by Adichie through Kambili and her brother Jaja, who are trying to make sense of it all. It is only when Kambili and Jaja go and stay with Auntie Ifeoma, that they begin to discover who they are as individuals without their father.
This story is incredibly heartbreaking but also enlightening because after I read this book, I felt like I had a greater understanding of how victims of domestic violence feel in the moment. There were times that, as we were reading this in class, I was just willing Kambili to break her silence and start speaking her mind. I was also willing Jaja to stand up to his family and be the person that he truly was. However, that was the whole point of the novel that discovery was a journey and not a race. They took so long to figure themselves out because they had spent so long living that way and that's what I as the reader had to understand. I think that Adichie really gave us an insight into what it's like to live in that sort of family, which I really liked.
I didn't really like the ending of the novel that much because to me, it felt a bit rushed. I think that the book was such a good story that I think Adichie struggled to finish it and the ending was a bit too unexpected. However, that wouldn't stop me from reading the novel again, which I think is really telling of what the novel was like as a whole. Would 100% recommend it!
Have you ever read any books by Adichie? Have you ever read any Nigerian novels? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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