Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?

Parts of this book were fun and interesting, but the writing style of a lot of telling rather than showing wasn't for me. The story itself deals with some really important and often under-represented topics such as colourism, discrimination faced by Black women, and cultural expectations that can themselves be problematic, but the protagonist doesn't make much progress until the last 8th of the book. I also found the Christianity heavy handed. 

4/5 - This was a cute book. Very reminiscent of the HBO show Insecure (which the author was a huge fan of). I'm not always a fan of the unconfident FMC, but I appreciated Yinka doing the work to get out of that space. The book is heavily Christian based, so if you do not like the religious aspects, this book isn't for you. I also wish that older generations would hold men accountable just as they hold women accountable to getting married and having children. But I'm sure this is a huge thing within the Nigerian culture.

I went into this thinking it was a romance, and I'm kinda glad it didn't turn out to be — Yinka spends a lot of time being fairly unlikeable because she's clearly desperate for a relationship (and the thinking is that, if she can get a “huzband” — any huzband — her family will finally stop bugging her, to which I say hahahahahahaha but then babies!!!). She makes all these changes to try to become someone else, someone whom she perceives as being more worthy of love, and lies to all her friends and is generally kind of a jerk to everyone she loves for most of the book.

I was thankful Yinka did get a redemption arc towards the end of the book, when she hits her rock bottom and gets into counseling. And I suppose there's still the potential for a happy ending, off-page.

CW: death of a parent (in the past), colorism, sexual assault (unwanted groping)