“Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?” - Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

 

💻 The novel opens on thirty-something, well educated, professional Yinka finding herself surrounded by her Nigerian aunties at her younger sister’s baby shower. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, these aunties are relentless. Yinka is currently single with no obvious prospects, and her aunties perceive this as a literal call to prayer on her behalf.

💻 The charming, first-person POV gives Bridget Jones vibes; if Bridget’s parents had emigrated to the UK from Nigeria in the ‘80s, and Bridget had a massive extended family that did not understand boundaries.

💻 Blackburn breaks up chapters by months and the titles read like a collection of humorous essays. Yinka’s responses to online quizzes, her internet search history, and WhatsApp messages convey Yinka’s state of mind throughout the novel.

💻 Themes of colorism, texturism, POC feeling entrapped by but also perpetuating Eurocentric beauty standards, add to the narrative of a first generation Brit trying to bridge the gap between her two cultures.

💻 Though the novel centers on Yinka’s often humorous, misguided plan to find a suitable date to her cousin’s wedding, the real key relationships are Yinka’s relationship with herself and her mother whose fears and anxieties for future-Yinka’s happiness come at the expense of present-YInka’s happiness.