3.1 out of 4 stars.

….”We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, “You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.”…

Does the above sound familiar? That is because it is featured in only the best song ever. Pause for reaction. Beyonce’s “Flawless”. Chimanda Ngozi Adichie is in THE Queen Bey’s song. If that doesn’t make you want to read a book written by her, just to even get a morsel of cool points, I don’t know what will. Also, this book was one of the top 10 books of 2013 so Yonce wasn’t the only one to take notice of her bad ass style. She TAUGHT Lipito Nyong’o a thing or two about being an ivy league, classy, ladAY.

Similar to her speech in the song, this book takes on the message of equal rights. For her part in Flawless it was gearing towards women’s rights but in her book it spoke to African-Americans.

A tale about a Nigerian female that takes on America during her teenage years without a dollar to her name. Throughout the million pages this book has, Adichie is able to elegantly paint a picture of the ups and downs that makes all her awkward, tumultuous, and unusual incidents become a world that you actually want to be in. Her and I have absolutely nothing in common but I still feel like she is a friend that I would like to have.

Americanah is very long winded and there is no climax. I would one hundred percent not recommend bringing this to the beach and feeling like you could leave understanding a word you just read. Adichie asks for your attention in this book and it is in your best interest to give it to her because I left learning a large amount of information. I took away some big points like the difference between being African in America vs. being African-American. Can we also discuss how it can take up to SIX hours to get someone’s hair braided?

All in all, I would recommend this book to someone in the market for some depth, a nice cast of characters, and a reality check on life.