Yvonne's Reviews > Tomorrow I Become a Woman

Tomorrow I become woman - when I turn 18, when I get married, when I have children, bear the brunt of an abusive husband and ultimately when I get a son.
That was the ultimate premise of becoming a woman in this book.

I was unable to put down this book while in equal measure I wanted to throw it against the wall since it annoyed me in the same way.

Different themes were explored:

Friendship among women showing the progression of the friendship thru the years, supporting each other and even keeping secrets that would ultimately kill the friendship when one of them dies. The trio of ladies was a testament to how much women need each other. “We women have to stick together, we have to help each other” this came true even for women who weren’t that close to each other.

Mother- daughter relationships. Wow. And not always in a good way. This book showed some toxic traits esp between the mothers who believed that a husband was a start and end all for their daughters. Consistently returning their children back to their abusive husbands since they don’t want to bear the shame that they left that marriage.

SHAME is a big thing. It’s a premise all on its own when a woman feels ashamed that her children are seeing her being beaten. Uju tries to show her daughters that despite what they have lived thru as women they can expect more. “It’s never too early to talk about marriage they are women after all.”

Patriarchy was a main thread in this book. The girls although they went to university couldn’t be complete without husbands. With husbands who the mothers would be happy to show to their friends and enemies alike. One from the same tribe, having some money and ultimately the woman to bear sons for him. Girl children were seen as a shame to the family. “She’’d referred to her daughters as shame in their presence and my heart hurt for them”. And oh did the ladies work hard to bear sons for their husbands and families. A woman without children was seen as a man. This theme can have me ranting all day. “To mould ourselves like clay, continuously transforming until we were in a form most pleasing.”

Religion and how it governs daily living. In this instance the judgement and not the growth expected from loving Christ. For me this being something experienced…. I felt it deeply. “It’s a woman’s job to build her home, not to tear it down” this including proverbs 31 it’s the hardest burden to bear for a woman seeking Christ and wanting to escape abuse.

Then there was unrequited love, Akin and Uju. The man she should have married but didn’t since he wasn’t from her tribe. It took two decades for them to finally be together. I would have loved for this to be explored some more.

Grief and how far and how long we can seek closure for our loved ones. “We are surrounded but alone with our grief”.

Resilience I loved this despite some of the hopelessness felt at certain points in the book. This would be a 6/5 stars rating for me. Well done for a first time book.
Another one of the best reads 2022.

My second time reading it and I have gotten a different set of emotions.

Third read and I realized a couple of things. It wasn’t very well edited. And the ending felt rushed. I think this gets corrected in the new book, which was my reason for rereading this book.