A surprising novel to finish the year. I was confused for several chapters, but let my brain settle into the magic realism, or mysticism, or whatever you want to call it, and enjoyed the story from there. It's tough to read at times, never completely clear... but also really beautiful and touching. I'm so glad I found this little treasure.

Whew. This book is refreshingly, compellingly different. A part of me thinks I should probably wait a day or two before writing the review to let all that I've read completely marinate and digest. However, I am compelled to get it all out while the impression it has left is strong and penetrating. The Dedication of the book says "To those of us with one foot on the other side." From that moment you know this book will be unlike anything you've ever read and it did not disappoint. Emezi illustrated with perfection just how delicate our grasp on reality can be and how experiences we have repressed can shape who become and the choices we make. If you've ever struggled with balancing your spiritual and human self, you identify with Ada immediately and even sometimes lose patience with her just as we often do with ourselves when we forget (or simply don't know) just how spiritually powerful we are.

I didn't fully understand where Emezi was going with the different voices or "personalities" of Ada, sometimes even believing that she was writing a novel about mental illness and spiritual awakening. However, seeing how they evolved throughout the story and how Ada eventually understood the necessity of their existence made this novel an amazing portrait of why traditional African religions still have an important place in the lives of the descendants of Africa.

When I got the depths of this novel, here during these dark hours, I was blown away! My eyes were misty at the end.
It’s absolutely the most brilliant creative book written of its kind ....
It became personal to me....looking back at my own journey- my own struggles - my own fight - my own growth - my own inner peace.

At one point I kept thinking,
“No wonder it’s soooo hard for people to get well”.
“No wonder people repeat the same repetitive unwanted behaviors for years”.

I don’t usually write reviews on my iPhone from bed -
I’m usually not ‘this’ vague about the story either. But honestly it’s best to TAKE THIS BOOK IN....read each word - digest it!
Its possible to read this novel in different ways. Many ways to experience it.

For me... I related it to our little voices in our heads ... that little voice which always speaks to us.
The critical voice -the happy voice too -
I thought about the deeper evil spirits ... the personality splits.
I loved the metaphysical storytelling. At times it felt contemporary as any other novel - ha!!
Parents - family - struggles - coming of age
- interests - education - travel - sex - friends - but....
THIS IS NOT like ANY BOOK I’ve ever read!!!

It took me about 8% to understand what I was reading - what was going on...

It took my almost half way to get the DEPTS AND POWER of this novel...
And then the ending... OH MY GOSH....it’s soooo beautiful. It still wants to make me cry!!!!

“Freshwater” is FRESH!!! Sooooooooo GORGEOUSLY written....
It allowed me to distant myself - FROM - myself - and be incredibly thankful that I have made remarkable growth in the area of healing in my lifetime.

This is one of the most unique and symbolic transforming books I’ve ever read!!!!

Thank you Grove Atlantic, Netgalley, and the brilliant author Akwaeke Emezi

I couldn't get into this book. Probably my end-of-the-semester brain, not the writing.

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A unique examination of painful adolescence, Freshwater is bewitching, bewildering and arresting in equal measure. The novel combines an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative style with the central conceit of the multiple narrators being deities that inhabit the protagonist's mind. The result is an interesting perspective on a fractured sense of self, and it is the experience of this perspective, rather than the actual story or plot, that fuels the book.

5★ DEBUT!
“Dedication
To those of us
with one foot
on the other side."

“By the time she (our body) struggled out into the world, slick and louder than a village of storms, the gates were left open. We should have been anchored in her by then, asleep inside her membranes and synched with her mind. That would have been the safest way. But since the gates were open, not closed against remembrance, we became confused. We were at once old and newborn. We were her and yet not. We were not conscious but we were alive—in fact, the main problem was that we were a distinct WE instead of being fully and just HER.”

Outstanding, mesmerising, poetically macabre and believably unbelievable. “The Ada”, as her captive spirits refer to her, is never alone. Her constant mental companions are spirits which should have been able to possess and influence her and then come and go at will, through the gates, across the bridge.

But not these mischievous, evil beings. The gods closed the gates behind them, so they lead The Ada into all sorts of trouble, both in Nigeria where she was born, and which has a tradition of ogbanje possessing children, and in the US when her family migrates.

The ogbanje are reminiscent of the scary faeries at the bottom of the garden (Ireland’s Little People who steal children and some adults and leave changelings in their place), the witches of the witch trials, poltergeists, and malevolent voodoo spirits. She befriends a girl familiar with the voodoo traditions, too.

Ada grows up, and a little like the well-known The Three Faces Of Eve, has a split personality, influenced not only by the first two WE who were born with her, but also by a wild and naughty girl, Asughara, who is "born" when Ada first has sex. A real troublemaker, but sometimes Ada enjoys the excuse to cut loose.

Speaking of cutting, she does that, too, “feeding” her demons, as it were. The only way they can enjoy more lives is to escape this life and cross back over, as they were supposed to do.

But remember? The gates closed behind them, so you know what that means? Who’s the bridge? Their “host” body, that's who, and while Ada/Asughara bounces from lover to anorexia to psychiatric ward and back again, they all have conversations with her, and they may even hug her somehow. Sometimes she feels safest "inside" with them.

She survives the American college experience, the club scene, pubs, you name it. She/they have an active social and love life and don’t miss much!

It’s a wonderful read and I found it absolutely compelling.

I especially enjoyed this author’s thank you to award-winning Nigerian author, Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie:

“Chimamanda Adichie, for the Farafina Creative Writing Workshop and the ripples from that. For that moment when I started to tell you about the book and you tilted your head, looked at me, and said, ‘Ah, so you’re an ogbanje.’”

Emezi obviously got it right. AND THIS IS A DEBUT!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for the review copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may be changed.

This isn't due for publication until February 2018 but is available on NetGalley until then, so I’m posting my review early to encourage other reviewers to have a look.

Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel is an intriguing story about the complex psychological life of Ada, a young Nigerian woman. Her multiple personalities are envisaged as figures from Igbo mythology and Christianity, and there is constant conflict and emotional stress as these characters fight to gain control of Ada. A difficult subject dealt with in a fascinating and original way. But this is not an easy book to read on any level.
I found the magical realism off-putting and sometimes confusing and there is a tendency towards unnecessary repetition; but Akwaeke Emezi is a skilled and imaginative writer and I look forward to reading her next novel.

Very good book! It's not really like anything I've read before. If I had to compare it to something, I'd say the mysticism and somewhat opaque (but descriptive) writing style reminds me of Rushdie. I was confused by the POV at first but quickly got caught up in Ada's life. Looking forward to reading more from this author in the future!

“The first madness was that were were born, that they stuffed a god into a bag of skin.”

This novel takes us on a journey through Ada’s complex, tragic, yet hopeful life. We watch her constantly battle to keep her head above water, and at the same time watch how the many gods are battling for control of her soul from within. The use of Nigerian mysticism creates a beautiful and realistic portrayal of mental illness and its path of destruction on a person’s life.

The writing is beautiful and poetic through each part in Ada’s life. We are given a different POV from the gods living within Ada, which gives a very unique perspective. The most heartbreaking POV is from Ada as we watch as each piece of her soul slips away and fight to become whole again. Each time I had to book this book down for work, Ada was on my mind. This is one of the best books I have read this year and will stay with you days, weeks, and months after reading. This book deserves all of the awards.

This book is unique. There's no other way to put it. There's just no other book like it.
The author herself regards it as her autobiography, but I think it's categorized as a literary fiction work by the publisher. I do think it can be both, though.
I've never read any book where the main character has multiple personalities. I've seen movies like the Split(2016), but never read a book written from POVs of individual personalities. That's the first and most important thing that makes this book unique.
Despite the uniqueness, it was quite easy to read. The narrative of "we" can be confusing at times, but that doesn't affect the understanding of the story. Although, their POV is one of the factors that put me off a little bit. Since I'm not religious by any means, I had a hard time understanding what's going on with the Gods, where are they actually from, and what do they really want. I think I still don't get half of it, but that's okay.
The main character, Ada, doesn't get much "screen time", since she's constantly taken over by the other personality from the middle of the book towards the end. And I find myself sympathizing with her and wanting to know what will happen to her.
The ending is another thing that I wish I could like more. I'm more of a full closure girl. I always crave that definitive ending when I read a book, especially ones I consider fiction. I guess in a way, the MC did find peace in being different and having multiple personalities. I just wished to know more about what happened to their life.
Anyway, I wish the author happiness in her life and hope she can remain productive and bring us more unique materials like this one.

This debut novel addresses many dark and difficult topics (abuse, self-harm, mental illness) in a moving and creative way. The narrator is described as having a fractured self and the book's format follows the voices of the many selves inside her. With some magical realism elements and lots of strange and surreal storytelling, the author speaks primarily to living with mental illness. For me, the complex ideas being transmitted were complicated and difficult to follow at times.

An amazing debut. Loved the writing style which was so vivid. The description of the other selves of our main character made this a very enthralling read and an interesting insight into the characters mind. Definitely read this one!

Seamlessly weaving a Nigerian mythos of mischievous gods (Ọgbanje) with a Western understanding of psychopathology, this breakout novel burrows into the experience of trauma, self-awareness, and spiritual awakening. The deeply surreal story is narrated by a girl with "one foot on the other side" and the chorus of selves that reside in her fractured mind. Somehow despite the extremely heavy and personal subject matter, Emezi's narrative voices are as entertaining as they are painfully relatable. What a truly fantastic and unique read.

A fascinating twisted tale that suffocates all the light and takes the reader to a dark place. This in no way implies that the book isn't readable or worthy of recommendation, just the most accurate description I can give in a sentence. Ada was prayed for by her parents, who wanted to have a girl and so her their prayers were answered and Ada was born, but with one foot in the spirit world and one foot in the human world. The story is told alternately from the 'we', the spirits inside Ada, and at times one particular spirit, and Ada herself. Unnerving in a way that will make your heartache as Ada tries to control her mind, that is spiraling out of control leading her to dangerous actions and thoughts that threaten her very existence. It's a spirit vs. human battle and plays out to others as crazy, mental illness, possession or some clinical designation. Akwaeke Emezi writes with a master's voice in such a way that anytime you read or hear about someone being "possessed" this book will come to mind.

Ada is referred to as "the Ada" in the novel, perhaps to highlight the thingness of her being. Early on she constantly wakes up standing over her parents bed in tears, Ms. Emezi writes as the parents seek answer, "“What happened?” A thousand times. “I had a bad dream.” Poor thing. It wasn’t her fault—she didn’t know that we lived in her, not yet." As Ada grows, attempting to make sense of her self, and establish control, the ride the reader is taken on is unreal. How can you express a fractured mind within a fractured body in a fractured world? This is what the novel attempts and it is a complex undertaking but the blurb from the book states "based in the author's realities." With that in mind, this book demands your alertness and engrossment, it will stay with you long after you put it down."...but how much can flesh really hurt spirit? Who do you think will be bruised more in the end?"Harrowing! A big thank you to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for providing an advanced ebook. Book will publish Feb., 13, 2018.

A difficult book to categorize, a difficult book to rate. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi tells the story of Ada, woman born in Nigeria with a personality disorder causing her to have two alternative selves living her life with her. Triggered into existence by traumatic experiences in her youth, Asụghara and Saint Vincent believe to help Ada live her life, which they regularly take over and control. This story is partly told from the perspectives of these selves, and although this point of view is often very dark, it feels fresh. It’s something new. Something I have never read before.
In the beginning I was often lost because of the slightly chaotic timeline and spiritual ideas. But gradually I came to understand that this chaos reflects the Ada and her personality disorder, it reflects the fact that she is lost in her thoughts, memories and herself. Spirituality is not my cup of tea, and there was a bit too much of it in my opinion, but it is used as an interesting way of explanation to people who do not have any experience with multiple personality disorders, alternatives selves and split identities.
Easy to say that Emezi has surprised me with this wonderful debut novel!

This book held me captive till the very end.
The story follows Ada, a child who upon birth is believed to possess two spirits inside her. As she grows, she's both sweet and volatile, something that is not known to everyone for her spirits take charge each seeking to meet their own selfish needs.
The author molds a story that is both candid and incomplete for she uses mysticism to weave an understanding of mental illness. You feel as though you are the spirits inside Ada, and you are also an outsider observing Ada which made this book irresistible.
When Ada struggles to come to terms with what's happening inside her mind, they remind her that she is them and they are her.
Sectioning the Ada gave her isolated pockets of memory, each containing a different version of her. There were versions to whom bad things had happened and, therefore, there were versions of her to whom these things had not happened. This terrified her, because if there were so many of her,then which one was she?
I love how the voice of each of the gods within Ada was firm. There was a certain dominance and certainty to them that made me await the awakening of Ada. I was reading this and when I got to Chapter Twenty, all I could keep saying was "come on Ada, get up Ada!"
It is at exactly that moment that I read this When you break something, you must study the pattern of the shattering before you can piece it back together. So it was with the Ada. She was a question wrapped up in breath: How do you survive when they place a god inside your body?

There is a phrase in the book that goes First feed your gods which I found to be remarkable simple but the weight of it stayed with me. If there's anything that I learned from this book is that people are as unique as they come and no matter how many voices speak up or demand attention in your head, in that shattering moment, you are still the one who counts. Finding out how to make it count is what matters.

I'd like to thank Grove Atlantic, Grove Press and NetGalley for the advance copy, for it's been a refreshing read.

Humans often pray and forget what their mouths can do, forget that every ear is listening, that when you direct your longing to the gods, they can take that personally.

This is one splintered read, which is the intention to convey a shattering mind. It took a bit of time for me to get into the many voices, in fact I held off on writing a review because it’s such a strange take on mental illness or spiritual madness (depending on what you chose to call it). The gates are open, and what comes out is disturbing. Ada has been conjured through prayers, a badly wanted child but it isn’t long after her birth that her parent’s know something is wrong. In her first ‘slow years’ of infancy, she was ‘moody, bright, a heaving sun. Violent.’ As she slips into many selves, Ada begins to fade away.

From Nigeria to America, the ‘others’ are always within, taking over. They are her strength, her terror, her power- but where is Ada? Are they guiding and protecting her, or is she hostage to these supernatural spirits? This is genre bending, and a fascinating surrealist exploration of mental illness. Is it all scientific, can it ever be supernatural, beyond our grasp? Reading it was like being enraptured by madness, it’s the sort of strange book I had to take breaks from. I haven’t read anything like it before.

It does often seem there is a blur between science/religion, mental illness/mysticism- I won’t go on about that here, lord knows there are enough books about saints and mystics that explore if it was ‘mental illness’ or truly encounters with god(s). There is a struggle of self, and we don’t hear as much from Ada as we do from her many others, she is there, but she is a diluted self.

This isn’t going to be your average read, based on ‘the authors own personal experiences’ it is a unique unfolding. How do you put to paper the chaos within’ your tornado mind? Though most people believe themselves to be stable beings, there are moments in ever life when solid ground abandons the mind, many moments of identity crisis, luckily for the majority of us these are fleeting moments. What, who am I? In a sense, we all house many selves, but when you can’t differentiate or put forth the core ‘me’, an unraveling occurs.

Which Ada is she? The seductress, the volatile and violent, the fearful? Is she full of gods? Which reality is the most real? The one we live in our minds, or the outside world? An ‘easily bruised child’ that takes all the wounds of her life into adulthood, will she ever be Ada, will she merge with the others and decide to plant both feet in the ‘other-world’, check out of her own? The veil between our world, and the spiritual is a wispy cobweb for Ada.

This is like no book you will ever read, if it were a painting, it would have many faces and you wouldn’t be able to explain it, nor whether you’re looking at a human, monster or god. Some readers will be brain numbed and lost, others will devour it. Curious to see what this author will cook up next.

Publication Date: February 13, 2018

Grove Atlantic

Grove Press

I think that the best praise a book can get is having the reader think to himself “this is something that I have never read”, and this is what made Freshwater for me such an outstanding experience, the fact that I had no prior book that I could compare it to, it was completely new territory. It is also what makes it so damn hard to review, there are all these feelings mixed up in my mind and making sense of them is just as hard as it was for Ada to make sense of herself.

For starters, it is really hard to make sense of what genre you should place it in, but then you realize that labeling is just what this book tries to fight, so doing it to it feels wrong. Akwaeke tells the story of Ada, a girl that since her birth has always been considered by the people around her as peculiar for there were two spirits that lived inside her since her birth.

These spirits that long to complete their passage from the real world into the other side, with their only obstacle toward that goal being the fact that they are linked to Ada’s physical body. Over time, the spirits, begin to form a sort of relationship with Ada and they become protectors to her. They take hold of her body when the reality and the people around her are just too much to handle because for a girl that is possessed by two evil spirits, she is remarkably good and innocent, and easily corrupted by the world.

The way in which Akwaeke uses mysticism in order to detach the reader from what they believe to know about mental illnesses is something that I found extremely clever and I was left in awe by how effective it was. This book explores a lot of modern themes such as identity, self-acceptance and what makes as normal and for that matter, does normal even exist?

Freshwater celebrates owning and accepting your own voice, no matter what that voice might say or in how many other voices it might fracture. A book that speaks to that little voice inside of you that wants to be heard, but you never had the courage to let it free. It really is a groundbreaking work of literature.

https://anovelhaul.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/freshwater-by-akwaeke-emezi/ review posted on wordpress