God's Children Are Little Broken Things, 2022, Arinze Ifeakandu ****

This novel is unlike anything I've read before. It's built on the lives of gay men in Nigeria, a subject I'd only ever encountered in fragments and whispers, never told this openly, this fully, until Arinze Ifeakandu's debut.

Structured as a collection of interlinked stories, the book moves through parents who disown their own children over their sexuality, men who marry women out of fear rather than love, and boys who are bullied, harassed, or falsely accused simply for who they are. But it's also something warmer than that list suggests: a coming-of-age portrait of gay boys and men in Nigeria, how they party, how they flirt, how they build ordinary lives inside an unforgiving world.

Ifeakandu is clearly gifted. His prose is exquisite, the kind you want to slow down for. I'll admit, though, that I sometimes lost the thread with so many characters shifting in and out of focus across stories. It asks for patience, but it rewards it too.

A few stories stayed with me long after I finished the book.

"Where the Heart Sleeps" follows Nonye, who returns home for her father's burial only to find his partner, Tochukwu, still living in the

Happiness, Like Water 2013, Chinelo Okparanta ****

Happiness, Like Water is a collection of ten short stories that I enjoyed, in general. 

"Happiness is like water. We're always trying to grab onto it, but it's always slipping between our fingers. And my fingers are thin. With lots of gaps in between"

The main theme of the stories is the mother-daughter relationship. Are mothers always qualified enough to dictate the course of their daughter's life? I find it somewhat worrisome that the female child should live up to her mother's heart desire, even if that means sacrificing her own happiness. At the end of the day, the main aim is to bring up girls who are decision makers, who know how to live up to their own heart content.

The stories that I really enjoyed are:

A Bit of Difference, 2012, Sefi Atta ****

One of the reasons why I have not read this book for a long time is because of its low ratings on Goodreads and Amazon. My interest rekindled when I reviewed Americanah and one my readers said it is the same story line as A Bit of Difference by Seffi Atta. However, I wonder why it is so low rated. Most readers say it is because of the writing style, let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with the writing style it is just different and does not complicate the comprehension of the story. Some say that they do not like the ending, however, it is a typical open-ended story that does not deserve those low ratings.

A Bit of Difference is similar to Americanah, it talks  about racism, hair, love, immigration, family matters, homosexuality and nothing in particular. Seffi Atta intervened in the telling of the story and would not let