Adanna - Battle of lust or love? (Book review)

What do you do when you come across a book that's been making rounds on the net because of how traumatizing reading it was? If you're someone who does love torturing herself like me, you go ahead to download it and experience the "traumatizing" for yourself.

The book titled Adanna is a book written by Nigerian author Adesua O'man Nwokedi.

It is a 70 chaptered and 1086 paged novel that tells the story of the tragic life of Adanna. A very beautiful lady who grew up in the land of Onitsha. After the death of her father, her family runs into debt and with her junior sister's ailment, she is married off to Chief Arinze Nsofor, a man three times her age. Two decades into the hell she lived in under the context of marriage, Chief Nsofor is found dead in his room. His sudden death brings even greater secrets hidden under the Nsofor household to life. It is harder to determine Chief's murderer cause everybody seems to have a strained relationship with him. Who exactly killed Chief?

This was a very emotional and unpredictable story. The storyline is one that will have you wanting to know what's next. And when you finally get to know what happened next, you are forced to stare into space, wondering what exactly just happened in the book you were reading. It's one where it will take seconds to recover from a heartbreakingly traumatizing line you just read. And if you're the emotional type, within those seconds, tears will follow suit. I didn't cry though but there were so many sad scenes in this book. It's as if the scenes went from happy to sad to happy again and relief and then sadness comes again, then happy. Things sort of happened in that order.

The book was a very fast-paced novel with many twists. So many plot twists and so many shocking turns. Each with it's own adequate amounts of either sadness or relief. Chief's killer was the least unexpected person. The reader wasn't even given a clue as to who it is from the start. And with uncovering chief's killer came the biggest plot twist in the book. It's not about the person who killed chief but the story behind why it was done. The story behind chief's killer was the highlight of the whole book for me. I was reading and getting shocked at so many points but nothing prepared me for what happened there.

You know when the best is saved for later. The best parts of this book were at the end. Akanna, Chief's first son, was the most unhinged character. He wasn't completely portrayed as sane but his behavior at the end was the worst. He lost it. Although he wasn't chief's killer, I couldn't help but be taken aback by that last scene. It all happened within the blink of an eye. Adesua wrote that part in a way that when all your mental defenses are down, boom! It happens. You suddenly need space to process what you just read. I remember my heart skipping a beat when I got to that part.

Although I liked how unpredictable this novel appeared, there were quite some things in it that I found displeasing.

There was one question on my mind all the while I read this book, one that began pissing me at a point. How is it that all five men claimed that they are in love with her the moment they set their eyes on her? Anayo, Chief's second son at the beginning claimed he was in love with her and wanted to marry her the first time he saw her in her father's shop. Akanna, claimed that the reason for all his actions was because he already fell in love with her from their first sighting and told his dad about her but his dad (Chief Nsofor) beat him to marrying her. How is it that every guy that sets their eyes on her claim she is the only one that had made their heart beat the way it did? Over five men claimed the same thing. I found that questionable. It appeared they all lusted over her beauty other than who the real Adanna was. Under the facade of all that beauty, who was the real Adanna they were falling in love with?

Probably, the author wanted the reader to overlook the rational and just delve into Adanna's world while reading. But this was a question that kept getting in my way of reading.

Also, the characters. There wasn't one who I could understand the reasoning behind his or her actions. From Adanna's mother to Adanna herself, to Anayo (Chief's second son) to Anayo (Chief's daughter). Once you begin to support one of the characters, they go ahead to do one stupid thing. If they were on the right track at the beginning, halfway into the book they're doing the wrong thing. Adanna's dad was the closest to okay character we had but he died too soon. So, there was really no likeable character.

It's a nice book notwithstanding the displeasures I mentioned above.

I'll give it a rating of 7/10. It's a captivating read for readers who aren't laced with trauma of any sort. Please pay attention to trigger warnings if you are struggling with any trauma. It focuses on themes of sexual abuse, domestic violence, lust and love.

It's an emotionally draining novel so I won't particularly recommend it to everyone but if you don't mind reading books like these, do check this out.

---

Have you read this book? What are your opinions about it? If you haven't, will you read it?

---

Thanks for reading.