5 Books Featuring Black Female Protagonists You Should Read Right Now
Over the past 8 months, I got back into reading after reading only 1 and a half books in my entire 3 years of university. I initially started reading for fun in high school. Over my four years in high school, I mainly read young adult fiction by white authors. Moreover, the majority of ‘literary work’ I read in class were also by white authors, particularly white men. As a result, when I got back into reading after my undergraduate degree, I made a conscious effort to read more books by ethnic minorities. This has widened my view-point and provided me with an avenue to learn about other cultures
I have read all the books on this list and can confidently describe them all as unputdownable.
I hope this list inspires you to diversify your bookshelf and read more books outside your comfort zone.
[Book 1] Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah is a love story between Ifemelu and Obinze that spans three nations — Nigeria, America and the UK. It captures the physical and emotional struggles of migrating to America and Britain. And delivers provocative commentaries on racism and blackness in America and the UK.
The story alternates between Ifemelu and Obinze and alternates between the past and the present to tell each of their stories as a Nigerian in the US or the UK. Some major themes discussed in the book include race, black hair and the relationship between Africans and African Americans.
“But race is not biology; race is sociology. Race is not genotype; race is phenotype. Race matters because of racism. And racism is absurd because it’s about how you look. Not about the blood you have. It’s about the shade of your skin and the shape of your nose and the kink of your hair. . . In America, you don’t get to decide what race you are. It is decided for you.” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
[Book 2] Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie is a year in the life of a 25-year-old Black woman of Jamaican heritage living in London. At the start everything is okay. She’s living with her white boyfriend and has a job she worked hard to get. But then he wants to go on a break, so Queenie has to move out. And let’s just say she did not handle the break well. She starts doing badly at work and having unprotected sex with various guys that showed her no respect. As the story goes on, we learn that she experienced some childhood trauma that completely destroyed her self-esteem and self-regard. And because of that, her default is self-sabotage.
The book touches on so many heavy topics including micro-aggressions in the workplace, complicated family dynamics, the fetishization of the Black woman’s body and mental health issues. I think it did a good job in portraying the stigma surrounding going to therapy in the Black community. The story flowed so smoothly, and it was written so vividly.
“What was wrong with me? I wished at this point I cared about myself enough to try and answer the question.” (Candice Carty-Willaims)
[Book 3] Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Set in Nigeria, specifically in Yorubaland, between 1987 and 2008, Stay With Me is written in the point of view of both the husband, Akin, and the wife, Yejide. It is a heartbreaking portrait of a marriage filled with love, loss, betrayal and desperate attempts to have a child. In Nigeria’s patriarchal traditions the pressure to have a child is placed mainly on the woman such that after four years without a child Akin was forced by his mother to take a second wife with the hopes of getting her pregnant This caused significant distress to Yejide. As all this is going on within this marriage, in the background, the nation itself is experiencing political instability. I enjoyed that elements of Yoruba family culture explored in the book. I learned a few things.
This is an absolute page-turner that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster as Yejide experiences one trauma after the other.
“I loved Yejide from the very first moment. No doubt about that. But there are things even love can’t do. Before I got married, I believed love could do anything. I learned soon enough that it couldn’t bear the weight of four years without children. If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love.” (Ayobami Adebayo)
[Book 4] My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
I was initially drawn to this book because of its title. Set in Lagos, Nigeria My Sister, the Serial Killer revolves around the relationship between two sisters. The narrator, Korede, is a nurse, she has a tall frame and is “composed only of hard edges”, meanwhile the younger sister, Ayoola, is beautiful, “made wholly of curves” and is a psychopathic killer. The title announces the novel for what it is (the sister really is a serial killer . . . no spoilers there), but the way the story unfolded, and how the characters developed had me hooked. I finished the book in one sitting.
The book is organised into many chapters, some only a single paragraph long. The book also has elements of Nigerian cultured incorporated into it, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, the ending was ambiguous and a bit unsatisfying, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder” (Oyinkan Braithwaite)
[Book 5] Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Children of Blood and Bone is the first book in Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy.
Orïsha, a fictional world heavily inspired by Yoruba culture (a tribe in present-day Nigeria), was once filled with magic with different Maji clans wielding different powers. The gods choose who can and can’t perform magic. Those chosen by the gods to perform magic are marked by their white coils, but they can’t do magic before they turned thirteen. So until their power manifested they were called diviners. Everything changed the night the King of Orïsha ordered that anyone with magic be killed. He let the children of the fallen maji live but they are treated as second-class citizens. Zelie is one such diviner. When an unexpected encounter ignites Zelie’s magic, she has a chance to bring magic back to Orïsha.
The novel was written from three points of views and each character was well developed. Although it is a Young Adult Fantasy novel, it describes the horrors of oppression in vivid detail. Adeyemi’s world building ability is also phenomenal. As a Nigerian, it was a whole new wonderful experience reading a fantasy novel so deeply inspired by West African mythology and populated by African characters.
Not only was it a great book, but it’s also a political statement. Adeyemi writes that the novel was written in a time when she kept seeing stories of unarmed black men, women and children being killed by the police. In the novel, an entire group of people were stripped of their ability to defend themselves and treated as second class citizens in their own country. Just like Zelie did something to fight against the monarchy, Adeyemi wants this book to be proof that we can always do something to fight against the evils of this world.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second book in the Legacy of Orisha series, was released in December 2019. I am a full-fledged fangirl of the series and read the sequel immediately after it was released. I am patiently waiting for the final book in the series.
“You crushed us to build your monarchy on the backs of our blood and bone. Your mistake wasn’t keeping us alive. It was thinking we’d never fight back!” (Tomi Adeyemi)
I really hope you consider reading any one of these books. Or even all of them. Let’s continue to diversify our bookshelves.
