This is not a strong debut.

Bisi Adjapon is a very feisty woman, met her during Ake Festival and her energy is just yummy. I tried hard to love this book. I really did but I couldn't immerse myself in this book because too many distractions jarred me out of the story. According to the blurb; "Of Women and Frogs is the coming-of-age story of ‘Esi’, a feisty half-Nigerian, half-Ghanaian(wink wink @yemisi_b ) girl growing up in post-colonial Ghana, with occasional visits to her maternal family in Lagos. When her curiosity about her body leads to a ginger-in-the-vagina punishment from her stepmother, Esi begins to question the hypocrisy of the adults around her who place restrictions on her just because she is a girl." Sounds interesting, right? I know! Here's what I was distracted by.
1- Inconsistent POV: the story started with Esi as a 9-year-old but for some weird reason, she spoke and reasoned like a 30-year-old acting like a 9-year-old. Does that make sense?
2- The theme of feminism: during the book reading at Ake festival, the writer describes the book as feminist. And I totally get that, but after a point, it was almost as if I was being force-fed scenarios+analysis of gender inequality.
It wasn't all bad though, at the core of this story, Of Women and Frogs encourages readers, especially women, to reflect on their sexuality without shame. It encourages us to embrace our bodies as normal and healthy.