review: Nightbloom

Women’s Prize 10/16 ¹

In Peace Adzo Medie’s Nightbloom, cousins and childhood friends Akorfa and Selasi grow up and apart in Ghana before reconnecting in adulthood. It’s a story of perspectives and diverging life paths, told first through Akorfa’s eyes and then turned upside down as Selasi takes over the narration. Akorfa is an only child with two doting parents and financial fortune. Her goals align with her family’s, and she excels at school. She loses sight of Selasi after Selasi’s mother dies in childbirth; as a consequence of this tragedy, Selasi loses her main source of support. The girls go their separate ways as teenagers due to overwhelming differences, but discover as adults a shared secret hardship that may help to bridge the hurt that has grown between them.

Nightbloom explores connection and separation, the ways cultural values can shape a life for better and for worse. It’s a tale of love and loss, and of the particular traumas women face when men are not held accountable even within the bounds of their own cultural mores.

Though I appreciated the shift in perspective here, the format ultimately didn’t work for me. The long opening section of Akorfa’s POV, while interesting, feels somewhat aimless. Even for the observant reader who notes that more is going on than meets the eye, Akorfa’s view is too limited to grant any deeper access into unfolding events; there’s not enough to read into to give this story an extra hook. Contrastingly, Selasi’s section makes quickly clear that Akorfa’s family are not seeing her situation correctly or responding appropriately to it, which shatters readers’ earlier assumptions and carries fresh meaning into familiar moments of the girls’ shared story; but Selasi’s section is a one-trick pony that keeps hitting that same point over and over. Though the girls’ lives are far from boring, I spent much of their individual just impatiently waiting for the short final section to let me know what the lesson might be.

My discontent with the pacing here is probably related to the fact that I am not a reader who especially likes slow-paced slice-of-life fiction, which much of this novel presents as. I prefer to be constantly challenged and surprised, which is not what this book is trying to do (fair!). Any reader who is just looking to connect with a character and follow their journey wherever it leads will likely find better momentum with this one- if that’s you I would definitely recommend it, Medie is certainly a skilled writer and her characters do feel very real and sympathetic. Nightbloom doesn’t have any major flaws or red flags- it does have some sensitive subject matter (SA) but deals with it appropriately; it’s structurally sound; it’s rich in themes of family and friendship; and it seems like (I’m no expert but learned a lot here) a very worthwhile exploration of Ghanaian life and culture, highlighting one electric friendship within those bounds.

“But while being in America had cracked open the cage, it had not freed me from the prison of Ghanaian expectations. I had taken jaunts outside […] but those were anomalies, points of discomfiture. Because I was most at peace when I agreed with them- especially my mother, when our desires and intentions aligned. Being comfortable when we disagreed would mean rejecting what I’d been taught about respecting my parents, trusting that they wanted the best for me and would make it happen, making them proud. It would mean that I was beginning to forget that while I belonged to myself, I also belonged to them. I was I, but I was also them.”

My reaction: 3 out of 5 stars. I think I’m appreciating Nightbloom more as something to ruminate over after finishing than I did while actually reading. However, I still have another book by this author on my TBR that I haven’t changed my mind about wanting to pick up, and as that premise intrigues me more from the go I think it might in the end be more to my taste. Even a different format here might have helped Nightbloom align more with my taste, so I very much think this is a case of “right author wrong book” for me and wouldn’t hesitate to put this one in the hands of a different audience. I’m not surprised this one didn’t make the shortlist, but still glad to have read it.

Have you read this one? What did you think?

1. (I’m slightly out of order here, but keeping the reviews labelled to match my reading order. 9 will be up next.) ↩︎