Wahala

The friendship story - of three Anglo-Nigerian friends in London and their lives intersecting with each other and the secrets they keep from their significant others - I really liked. I like getting to see grown women - Ronke, Simi and Boo are our gals here - have friends that they can get together with that are not necessarily surrounding a particular activity or kids. Maybe that's because right now my life revolves around kids, and book clubs are my means of getting together with friends outside of my kid. (This was not for book club.)

I had two main issues with Wahala, and a third that's the ol' Have A Conversation bugaboo.

1) Ronke, while being the best and nicest character, was fat-shamed CONSTANTLY. She's a foodie, and likes to cook, and likes to eat, and she wears size 14(!?!) pants but everyone's go-to is how Ronke and sad and desperate because she's a blob and needs to lose weight. Never mind the fact that she's helpful and loves her friends and is good at keeping secrets, and is always ready to lend an ear or an arm or a pan. I hated it. Justice for Ronke!

2) Isobel. The whole thriller-y element rests entirely on her shoulders but I didn't believe her motivations for messing with these women. I REALLY don't like the “it's because she's crazy!” argument, and I worried up until like the last three pages that that was all Isobel's character was going to hinge on. The real reason for her infiltration into this threesome made even less logical sense. She was entirely a chaos agent for no good reason.

3) Just Have a Conversation! I know nobody tells their partner absolutely everything, but so much of Isobel's meddling and their self-imposed problems would have been nipped in the bud if these women had had conversations with their significant others BEFORE imploding their own lives!

I did like the aspects of being multinational/multicultural, and how that can mean very different things depending on your family (Ronke much more steeped in her Nigerian heritage, Boo almost completely ignorant of her own).

Didn't really enjoy. Some pervasive problematic views. Some characters completely unlikeable. The only interesting part was towards the end, and then the ending was unsatisfying. It felt rushed.

Essentially it's not for me. But maybe others may like it.

3.5 ⭐

It was kind of a slow start for me as all the characters were extremely unlikeable. The second half went very quickly as I became more engrossed in the web of lies and drama being spun

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Did this entertain me, yes! Do I think Boo and Simi were horrible friends and people, yes! Was I angry my girl Ronke (the nicest person in the whole damn book) got the short stick, yes! Was I disappointed in the ending, yes! Was I super excited to see the author included some yummy sounding recipes, hell yes! Would I give this one a recommendation, yes! And I can assure you I will tune in when this comes to TV this year!

This was a brilliant read, with some fantastic characterizations.

Hate is a strong word, but honestly, in this case, there really is no other word to describe my feelings towards Isobel. I suppose it says a lot about how well the characters were written that I had such strong feelings towards them. Boo was another character that I couldn't stand.

Ronke was definitely my favourite. Simi wasn't bad either.

I loved the flavour of Nigeria that we got throughout the book! I've said this before but I'll happily say it again, I love it when, as a reader we get an insight into cultures/countries not familiar to you. I thought it was really well done in this book.

My only disappointment was the ending. Unfortunately, I can't say any more about that without giving away spoilers!

Thank you to PH and Nikki May for the chance to read this book.