Purple Hibiscus

For starters, I just want to say that I liked this book more than I thought I would. I'm really not a big fan of contemporaries. Like really. I only ever really read one if it has a very intriguing plot and good reviews. So, I was a bit hesitant going into this, especially since it was a school book.

And you know, I had a right to be for about half of the book. I found the first half to be terribly boring. Maybe it was because I couldn't relate to the main character, maybe not. Kambili annoyed me to no end. She would complain and pout about her father's abuse in her head and about how she couldn't speak. But then she'd turn around looking at her papa like he was her own personal Rumpelstiltskin going, “papa, I will give you my firstborn child, you're so good to me.”

Nope. I wasn't down for that.

Well, now that I've done a sufficient amount of bashing Kambili, I really did enjoy the second half of the book. It was interesting to see the immense amount of character development that was occurring. On the political end, it was heart-breaking and all too real.

Overall, it was a good second half. But to me, half of a good book doesn't earn 4 stars. So that's why I'm giving it 3.