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Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
34 reviews
aimz_rushton's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming
theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A well written story about self love, sisterly love, motherly love, and a quest for true love.
I both loved and hated Yinka. It was a real rollercoaster. LoL. I loved her at the start of the book as the reader is getting to know her. I felt a lot of sympathy for her—the struggles she was faced with and how she was treated by family.
But then I hated her as she became completely self absorbed and obsessed with dating. Her lying/omissions spun out of control and she became a disgusting person. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be her friend and she’s lucky she didn’t alienate everyone who cared for her.
After some tough love and hard truths from her friends and family, Yinka worked on herself with the help of a therapist and she stepped into her true self. She gained the self confidence she needed to become the woman she was meant to be.
I both loved and hated Yinka. It was a real rollercoaster. LoL. I loved her at the start of the book as the reader is getting to know her. I felt a lot of sympathy for her—the struggles she was faced with and how she was treated by family.
But then I hated her as she became completely self absorbed and obsessed with dating. Her lying/omissions spun out of control and she became a disgusting person. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be her friend and she’s lucky she didn’t alienate everyone who cared for her.
After some tough love and hard truths from her friends and family, Yinka worked on herself with the help of a therapist and she stepped into her true self. She gained the self confidence she needed to become the woman she was meant to be.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent
katsmedialibrary's review against another edition
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Fatphobia and Racism
thenovelmaura's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I enjoyed this one and thought it was especially delightful to listen to! Maybe this is because I got to experience all of the narrator's lovely accents; it made me feel more immersed in the story. Overall, I liked the focus on remaining true to your values and refusing to acquiesce to societal, familial, and peer pressures. This book was at times hilarious but often poignant, particularly when Yinka's insecurities about her appearance came up. Colorism is a thing, y'all!
Although Yinka's goal is romance, the true outcome of the book is her character growth and the relationships she builds along the way. I'm only docking a star because it was a bit too long and I could feel myself growing impatient in some of the middle sections. Overall, this is a solid debut novel and I hope Damilola Blackburn is already working on her next one!
Although Yinka's goal is romance, the true outcome of the book is her character growth and the relationships she builds along the way. I'm only docking a star because it was a bit too long and I could feel myself growing impatient in some of the middle sections. Overall, this is a solid debut novel and I hope Damilola Blackburn is already working on her next one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Racism
Moderate: Death of parent
Colorismserendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? is a lighthearted read featuring a lovable but flawed protagonist. Yinka is a 31 year old British woman of Nigerian descent whose family is putting pressure on her to marry. To get them off her back she commits to finding a boyfriend to accompany her to an upcoming wedding. But things do not go according to plan. She loses her job, fixates on the wrong man, and makes many questionable choices. But eventually she finds the courage to be true to herself, tell her family how their constant pressure makes her feel, seeks out a job she’s passionate about even if it is in a less prestigious field that her previous one, and maybe, just maybe, finds a guy who might be worth dating.
Despite its overall lighthearted tone this tackled some serious topics including the pressure on women to marry and the problems with family pressure, judgement and comparison in general. Racism and colourism were also tackled, as was the issue of whether people were obligated to be proud of their cultural heritage and what this might look like. This story gets high marks for depicting therapy as a normal part of emotional and mental well-being. I also liked that Yinka was a strong Christian, determined to retain her virginity until marriage, and that she was not interested in imposing her values on others or judging those who believed differently. Such characteristics seem out of the ordinary in contemporary fiction so I found it a refreshing point of difference. I loved the inclusion of an aromantic character, a nice balance to the pressure to marry message. I also liked the inclusion of text messages, post-it notes, computer search histories and planning charts with KPIs. They added a little fun but also provided a quick insight into Yinka’s mind.
Despite its overall lighthearted tone this tackled some serious topics including the pressure on women to marry and the problems with family pressure, judgement and comparison in general. Racism and colourism were also tackled, as was the issue of whether people were obligated to be proud of their cultural heritage and what this might look like. This story gets high marks for depicting therapy as a normal part of emotional and mental well-being. I also liked that Yinka was a strong Christian, determined to retain her virginity until marriage, and that she was not interested in imposing her values on others or judging those who believed differently. Such characteristics seem out of the ordinary in contemporary fiction so I found it a refreshing point of difference. I loved the inclusion of an aromantic character, a nice balance to the pressure to marry message. I also liked the inclusion of text messages, post-it notes, computer search histories and planning charts with KPIs. They added a little fun but also provided a quick insight into Yinka’s mind.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Racism, and Grief
nicolaparty's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Death of parent and Pregnancy
Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol
onemorepagecrew's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a wonderful book that is so much more than a romance story. In it we meet Yinka, a British Nigerian woman with an Oxford education, a good career, a solid friend group, and the constant pressure from her family to get married. When her cousin gets engaged, she sets a personal goal to find a date for the wedding and the reader joins her as she awkwardly meets a few potential dates.
The author captures the insecure inner dialogue so well that it’s easy to be equal parts cringing for and rooting for Yinka. But this story has more depth than the dating scenes and that’s what made me love it. Yinka’s friend group is easy to fall in love with, too, and each of those characters are also going through their own situations. There’s a mom of three young kids questioning the loyalty in her marriage, there’s an aromantic best friend who tries to keep Yinka from changing who she is to attract a man, and there’s work colleagues who morph from surface-level support into deeper-level friends. Yinka is also surrounded by her Nigerian aunties and feeling their pressures in love and work, save for one auntie who she can speak with vulnerably.
This story is funny and serious at the same time – you’ll laugh with Yinka in one chapter and then yearn to hug her in another as she works through her self-love journey. If you haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend it.
Bonus info: did you know that this book originally started as a short blog post by the author? It grew into this book as the author saw how many women were feeling the pressures of a relationship-obsessed society and she wanted to give a voice to these experiences.
Content warnings: Racism, Body shaming, Colorism, Texturism, Dysphoria, Death of Parent
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Racism, and Dysphoria
Minor: Death of parent
reading_ladies_blog's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia
amberinpieces's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria
Minor: Mental illness, Racism, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Outing
jdamae11's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a fun and breezy read, and it made me laugh out loud a few times. Many of the conversations with Yinka’s aunties hit a little too close to home LOL. Also tackles issues of colorism and featurism throughout 👏🏽, and integrates a far too underrepresented lgbtq identity (aromantic) in a really easy way. I found this book to be really familiar since I was raised in similar settings to Yinka and with similar cultural background, and even though I couldn’t directly relate to her age wise & with her life goals, I still found her to be someone I was invested in and rooting for. I’m US based and I felt the author did a great job painting the various neighborhoods of London and the culture of those neighborhoods that Yinka is in really well. It made me want to look up a lot of things and there was important commentary on gentrification happening there as well. Nana was my favorite character, it would be cool if there was a spin-off about her. At times the pacing felt a little disjointed but overall I really liked reading this. Gunna rec to my older sisters too :)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming and Racism