ARC Review: “Lucky Girl” by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu

“Lucky Girl” by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu

Publishing Date: May 1, 2023

Page Length: 336 pages (electronic edition)

Genre: Literary Fiction

Synopsis:

Soila is a lucky girl by anyone’s estimation. Raised by her stern, conservative mother and a chorus of aunts, she has lived a protected life in Nairobi. Soila is headstrong and outspoken, and she chafes against her mother’s strict rules. After a harrowing assault by a trusted family friend, she flees to New York for college, vowing never to return home.

New York in the 1990s is not what Soila imagined it would be. Instead of finding a golden land of opportunity, Soila is shocked by the entitlement of her wealthy American classmates and the poverty she sees in the streets. She befriends a Black American girl at school and witnesses the insidious racism her friend endures, forcing Soila to begin to acknowledge the legacy of slavery and the blind spots afforded by her Kenyan upbringing. When she falls in love with a free-spirited artist, a man her mother would never approve of, she must decide whether to honor her Kenyan identity and what she owes to her family, or to follow her heart and forge a life of her own design.

Review:

Lucky Girl is a beautiful, powerful, and emotional rollercoaster ride of a novel. Following the main character, Soila, we get to watch her journey from childhood to adukthood as she navitages through life, family, and school. To watch her as she tries to overcome difficult and sometimes complicated relationship with her mother even as she moves away to America. Soila experiences many ups and downs and realizes the stark contrast of growing up black in Kenya as opposed to growing up black in America and living in New York is truly a cultural shock for her that she has to learn to overcome.

White fragility. White privilege. Black consciousness. Until I came here, I never knew any of these terms. I know now that the assumptions I had about race when I first came to this country were wrong. I’m more sensitized and I’ve seen enough to know it’s all very real and painful. I have moments at work where I feel tinges of racism directed at me.

Even as we see Soila move to another country we still see how she is tied to Kenya and her family. The novel goes back and forth between those two locations throughout the course of her journey. She gets into romantic relationships through her college years and struggles with pursuing her passions versus pursuing the career that her mom is wants her to do.

In different and very challenging circumstances Soila has to learn to grow up in a very fast way. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel it opens up a lot of conversations due to the different topics it discusses. the whole novel is a larger conversation about race, identity, culture, black diaspora, and family. There is a lot to tackle in this novel because of how handle so many issues but I felt it was written well into Soila’s narrative and the overall story.

I feel like this novel written represents culture shock and what it means to be immigrant in America. It discusses experiencing a life in a place that is so different from where you were raised and trying to learn to assimulate but also not lose your cultural identity. I really enjoyed reading about Solia and the support system she has in the United States as well as her very loving but sometimes over-bearing auntie’s back at home and Kenya.

I’m very picky about reading literary fiction in general, but this one really appealed in the way it was written and the topics explored. This is a novel that I would highly recommend any other reader.

*Trigger Warnings: Rape, Racism, Suicide

Final Verdict:

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.