3.5 stars

Kambili is 15 years old and lives with her domineering father, her scared mother and her slowly defiant brother. Kambili experiences sudden freedom when during the Nigerian military coup, she and her brother are sent to stay with their aunt and she is allowed to bond with her cousins, get to know her grandfather and truly experience being a teenage girl, all in the shadow of violence and government upheaval.

This was a beautifully told story that combined a terrifying home life with a young girl's urge to explore more of what is on the outside of the world and who starts realising that not everything her hypocritical father preaches is true. Kambili was innocent from a lot of things, and horrifyingly not of other, more violent things. This story contains several instances of domestic violence. I loved seeing more of Nigeria in this book, and the way Kambili and her family lived versus how her aunt and cousins lived.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie expertly weaved this story and it had so many tender moments combined with moments full of pain. I really feel like I understood a little bit of what life was like for many Nigerian families living during the coup, and the struggles they faced.