I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for am honest review.

The Middle Sister is a heart-wrenching representation of how grief and trauma can create ripples of pain with survivors at times almost drowning and other times floating on top.

Nani is the middle sister of an affluent Nigerian family. She is the quiet sister that follows the rules and often avoids conflict. Sudden loss changes her view of the world, causing her to believe she has lost herself also. We follow her perspective primarily as she has the most difficult experiences of her life.

I loves this book. The trauma and grief are handled with such honesty that I found myself immersed in her thoughts and emotions. There were moments when I had to put the book down to sit in what I had read, and there were other times that I kept going because I HAD to know what would happen next.

Even with TWs, this book is a must read.

I was pleasantly surprised I received the arc. The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe is a beautiful and tender exploration of grief, trauma, motherhood and death. Before anyone decides to pick this up I would like like to warn about the content since it deals with sexual assault, death (parental and sister as mentioned in the synopsis), grief and a few scenes of domestic violence. This is is not a light hearty read as it deals with quite a few heavy topics.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Seventeen year old Nani loses her older sister and father in quick succession and the impact on her is immediate and long-lasting. The isolation of grief and a grieving family send her into the arms of a man who shows her love, a self-proclaimed man of God. This man with whom she has three children, but whose love is false, as he turns violent and isolating. Nani needs to find the strength to break out and free, for herself, her children and her future.

This is a heart-breaking, tender novel, full of beautiful prose. It is a novel which has lingered in the mind long after I finished reading it, and one I will read again.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Thank you for granting me access to this book.
I'm stunned by the stellar reading I've just experienced. I've always been a fan of Ms. Unigwe but she has evolved so much as a writer that I just want to give her all the flowers. I stayed up late to read this book and I have no words to describe how good this book is. All I can tell anyone right now is, you have to friggin read this.
Just, wow.

The story is heavy but the heaviness wasn't too unbearable in the beginning. The minute Ephraim entered the story, I hated him. He just gave bad vibes with his preaching and busy body and I wanted to knock Nani's head for letting him in.

The anticipation of all the bad things I knew were going to happen was overwhelming. I wanted to stop reading but I could not stop. When it finally happened, I wasn't shocked. I was disappointed, I felt sick, but I wasn't surprised. He kept coming back, refusing to let her have time to heal and I was enraged.

I'm not going to lie, I blamed Nani for marrying him. For deciding that marrying her abuser was better than facing her family. Their relationship had deteriorated, but it had not gotten that bad. The consequences of her decision to go to Ephraim made my skin crawl.

Then I read a little further, understood her more, but I still blamed her. I couldn't help it.

I was irritated by Ugo and their mother's behaviours. For deciding that they didn't want to know what had happened to her, didn't want to deal with it. It was difficult to wrap my head around; that a mother (sister) would choose to suppress their feelings instead of fighting for their loved one. They should have fought for Nani earlier.

I'm very grateful that Nani's story ended well. These stories sometimes don't. I'm grateful to the author for giving us that.

This was a heavy read, but also very well written.

When seventeen-year-old Nani loses her older sister and then her father in quick succession, her world spins off its axis. Isolated and misunderstood by her grieving mother and sister, she’s drawn to an itinerant preacher, a handsome self-proclaimed man of God who offers her a new place to belong. All too soon, Nani finds herself estranged from her family, tethered to her abusive husband by children she loves but cannot fully comprehend. She must find the courage to break free and wrestle her life back—without losing what she loves most.

This was such a hard-hitting novel. I immensely enjoyed reading about the misunderstood Nani - her journey was emotional and uplifting and I could not stop reading. It is a very composed novel, never saying more than it needs to; the pacing, the length, the character development was spot on.

I will be thinking about Nani and her story for a while yet.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review.