Note: versions of this review also appear on Goodreads and Instagram.
How about an unintentional Fourth-of-July themed post? I forgot to post this on Friday, but the timing feels right with the Declaration of Independence theme and the Philadelphia setting.
Last week I read Ibi Zoboi’s new book NIGERIA JONES (affiliate link). I chose it for Philly-specific reasons, but I ended up loving it in general.
We meet sixteen-year-old Nigeria on the fourth of July. It’s also her baby brother Freedom’s first birthday. She has spent the past year absorbed in Freedom’s care after her mother’s disappearance.
Nigeria’s father is a famous Black nationalist and leader of the Movement. He raised her steeped in the Movement’s ideals, which include divesting from oppressive (read: white) systems and creating an all-Black utopia. Her parents schooled her at home in the Village House, where Movement members come to stay for as many days, weeks, or years as they need to get their feet on the ground.
Many people see this as a utopia — Nigeria included.
And yet her mother’s absence opens a gaping hole in her life. Nigeria begins to smother under her obligations to her family and the Village House. She begins to question her father’s authority and resent the Movement’s patriarchy.
Then Nigeria learns her mother wanted her to go to school. Real school. A fancy private Quaker school with a lot of white kids. What does this mean? Does she want this for herself? And if she does, what happens when her father tries to stop her?
This book explores a lot of complex issues around race, gender, and coming of age in a family/community with a rigid belief system. I loved watching Nigeria explore outside the bounds of that system and challenge the ideas her father had instilled in her since birth. Nigeria is an extremely bright young woman, yet she is also extremely sheltered. She has a lot to learn, and a lot to teach us.
I often felt just as stymied as Nigeria. I wondered how the heck she was going to figure everything out. Throughout the book she is so often caught in an impossible situation. Sometimes she acts with impressive maturity, and sometimes teenage angst and impulsivity get the best of her.
I was rooting for Nigeria through all of it. I really wanted her to end up whole and okay, even if I (and she) didn’t know which path would lead her there. The end of her story felt really satisfying. We don’t get a tidy resolution of all the big questions, but we do get to see Nigeria coming into her own and learning what it means to choose a life for herself.
NIGERIA JONES is young adult, but it deals with a lot of heavy issues and I truly enjoyed it as an adult reader. It was one of those books that kept me so engrossed, I stayed up long past my bedtime to finish it. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys themes of women’s empowerment, Black liberation, coming of age, or family dynamics.
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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