Hi friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well! Today I’m posting my review of Ayesha Harruna Attah’s novel Zainab Takes New York.

Zainab Takes New York by: Ayesha Harruna Attah: Zainab’s lifelong dream is to become an illustrator and so in order to do that, she makes a plan to move from her town in Ghana to the big city that is New York. There she makes new friends and is reacquainted with old ones, shaping the way of her new life. To add to it all, her love life is chaotic and she begins to hear the voices of her ancestors in her head. These three distinct voices soon help her be her guide, if she chooses to listen to them. For a debut novel, this was really clever and well written. There were elements this reader really enjoyed, they just needed more of a polishing. The overall plot of our main character, Zainab, moving to the big city to find herself, only to be met with ancestral voices put such a fun spin on a story that has been told many times before. The reader really enjoyed getting to know, not only the three voices, but through them we got to know Zainab better, too. It led to some really entertaining scenes and great character development all while feeling really heartwarming. What the reader could have left behind was the insistent need Zainab felt for losing her virginity. It got to the point where the reader was like can it happen already so we can stop talking about it – but then it did happen and we were still talking about. Yes, this was a big turning point for Zainab, the reader understood that, but it didn’t feel like it was necessary to keep coming back to it. It was like the author was trying to write a romance, but the scenes were sprinkled in and they didn’t have a lot spark most of the time, so it was a little lacklustre to read. The reader will say though, some of it was very relatable. There were moments throughout that the reader found a little clunky to read, but as this was this author’s debut, it leaves room for improvement and to get better and this reader would love to see where Attah’s writing goes from here. As for the characters, they were fun and well developed. The reader liked how each of them had their own story and how their stories found their way being incorporated into Zainab’s story. The way they were all so connected and there for each other, even at the worst of times, sometimes. It was nice to read about this community of friends who they could all count on, who were trying to make a way for themselves, it was very uplifting to read. The different characters all had these little quirks to them that made them memorable, especially Zainab’s new friend Mary Grace, she was hilarious yet supportive. The reader wasn’t sure how this was all going to wrap up, but it did a good job of bringing everything full circle and in a happy way. It made it so that things were on the road to being better and brighter without telling too much or leaving it ambiguous. In the end, a well written novel that had a lot of heart and potential.