Ezinne is the abused and battered wife, her husband is murdered in cold blood in their home and she is the prime suspect with both motive and opportunity. The media is all over the story and it is messy until a private investigator crosses her path.
Everyone should be allowed to breath… and that’s what love does – it gives us room to breath! it’s funny how love has become choked up by our own expectations, selfishness and egocentric cultural bias. Love is now a thorn that everyone wants to get entangled in either to feel among or to escape the feeling of loneliness.
Chinelo, in her book Mrs Unmarried opens us up to the life of Ezinne who is caught up in a web of a failed love and marriage. A web that is about to choke what’s left of life out of her. Once again, I’m reminded that there’s no justification for treating a human being, and in this case, a woman any less than s/he deserves to be treated – loved – in every sense of the word. Everyone who gets married – apart from maybe arranged marriages – has that connection before taking the step to be together “till death do us part”, but it is worthy of note that the author did not give us more than a glimpse into what a loving marriage was like at the beginning for Ezinne, because of course, when doom sets in, it erases everything – every memory – of what ‘good’ felt like.
In our review, we will be sharing a few things we loved about this awesome read as well as our views in relation to our present day realities.
Let’s get to it… I was captivated by the style, tenses and relatable conversations in the story. The life of the couple, set in Lagos, Nigeria truly brought it home for me coupled with the fact that we really do not feel we have anywhere to go when we’re in a deep mess until it’s about to kill us, and then we discover that we can run!
I’m drawn to the fact that Ezinne and Chukwuma are only a piece in the puzzle to look out for in this story and in real life. There’s the Christianese neighbours and friends who play the “it is well” card when they notice that all is not well, failing to realize that there’s a lot they can do from a distance, even if not directly. There’s those who do not care a bit about you until there’s news about you – most likely for bad – then, they’d pounce on whatever news there is to download information about your life that you never even knew existed.
There’s people who do not even believe in you, but are all over you, acting like they’re in your defence crew, like they’ve got you covered and of course, there’s those that are on your team for real, by divine connection or by what I call ‘Holy Hookups’
You see, life has got its ups and downs but for all of these, it’s till death do us part and it’s either we’re holding our hands up high, pulling each other up so we can live, or we’re tearing each other down just to stay apart.
I love ‘Love’ and if I was in on the manuscript, I would have made interaction between Ezinne and Chuka a bit more like a breath of fresh air. It would have been easy to see her latch on to this new window that heaven was presenting on a platter, but again the author reminds me that if she did, she would have been caught in the same circle. ‘Others are doing it’ and ‘there’s no time on my side’ are never good enough reasons to take on the responsibility and commitment of marriage. Because when the chips are down, our expectations, selfishness and egocentric cultural bias would not be able to grant us bail.
The Lawyer in Chinelo Mgbeadichie just had to show herself and she was great at that. I followed the legal proceedings like I was on a course. Although, I am aware that there’s a lot more awareness on what could be done to assist anyone going through violence in their home, I also believe that the judicial system isn’t that clean enough yet to really have the back of its citizens. Set into 2019 and beyond, I expect that the justice system would have become more serious and would be a better option for victims who need cover from their molesters.
Although, life played Ezinne a lucky card – maybe when she found her way into the spotlight – I would say that opportunity met preparation and as much as the spotlight escalated her woes, it played a huge role in fastracking her freedom. God still had a plan, no matter how forgotten she felt she was.
What did I not like? The impact of a not-so-great proofreading and the fact that I’d still wish there was more than a small window for Chuka in Ezinne’s life. lol… On a scale, I’d give it a 7. But as I draw to the end of the book, Mrs. Unmarried, I’m as astonished as the author intended for me to be. I mean the suspense was tight…
‘Mrs. Akinwande’s maid?’
‘Did Mrs. Akinwande know about this?’
You grab your copy of Mrs. Unmarried by Chinelo Mgbeadichie on OkadaBooks to answer our questions.
About Chinelo Mgbeadichie
A Masters Degree Holder (LL.M) from the University of Buckingham, Chinelo lives in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a novelist and legal practitioner who is passionate about her work and is highly self motivated. She is the author of other books – Behind Dark Clouds & Murder at Dawn.
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Review by Amy on aimeeslibrary.com
