This was a very heavy book, but it was so well written and really did an amazing job of depicting grief as Eve deals with the death of her husband. It took me an embarrassingly long time to finish this book because of the nature of the topic, so please check trigger warnings. This one won't be for everyone and it isn't a book that will give you the warm fuzzies. Thank you to NetGalley, Onyi Nwabineli, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read Someday, Maybe.

I want to express my gratitude to NetGalley and Graydon House for providing me with a digital ARC of "Someday, Maybe" by Onyi Nwabineli. Despite receiving approval to read this novel before its November 1, 2022, release date, I was only recently able to start reading it. I apologize for the delay in reading the book and submitting a review.
"Someday, Maybe" tells the story of a Nigerian woman, Eve, who is trying to go on with her life after the suicide of her husband, Quentin. Quentin does not leave a suicide note, so Eve and his mother try to make sense of his loss in their way; Aspen blames Eve and Eve by avoiding Aspen and life. Throughout the novel, Eve asks herself why she didn't see signs of Quentin's distress. Why didn't he share his fears with his best friend? Why didn't he share his pain with Eve? Eve is able to navigate this loss with the tough love from a beautiful support system consisting of her younger brother; feisty sister, Gloria, who challenges Eve to confront her feelings; her parents, who offer comfort and wisdom; Quentin's best friend, who shares his grief and memories of Quentin; and her best friend, who provides a shoulder to cry on and a listening ear.

As Eve navigates her grief, she is forced to confront issues within her marriage. Her emotions are depicted with raw intensity, making her journey feel all the more real and relatable. By the novel's end, Eve finds her voice and understands hard truths about herself, her marriage, and Quentin's life.

I truly enjoyed "Someday, Maybe, but I wish the author had revealed more about why Quentin took his life. It's tragic, as he appeared to really love Eve. However, the author's skill in tackling grief and guiding Eve through the recovery process is truly commendable. This must-read novel handles sensitive themes with grace and understanding, leaving readers engaged and curious about the story.

4/5 stars

This was an emotional ride! I thought the sensitive subjects were done so well and I felt so connected to these characters. This novel is absolutely filled with so much grief. Overall I would recommend this book but would also issue some very serious trigger warnings. I, myself, have had someone commit suicide in my family and this was hard to read.

This book is about find what you really know about someone. This book dealt with suicide and grief ( trigger warning”. It was well written and I could really feel the grief and heartache of the main character. Great read

“Death in general elicits questions, the most invasive of which is how?” writes Onyi Nwabineli in Someday, Maybe. Eve Ezenwa-Morrow, the novel’s protagonist, has lost her husband, Quentin Morrow, to suicide. After his death on an undated New Year’s Eve, she is so pinioned by the resulting grief that a new persona emerges: an “Eve of Now,” irrefutably distinctive from the “Eve of Before.”

The new Eve refuses to eat, is constantly nostalgic, and villainizes her mother-in-law. An English graduate working at a magazine called “Circle,” Eve’s voice is poetic, multifaceted, and poignant. Nwabineli’s evocative writing establishes the character of her protagonist via soliloquies in which she delineates grief and its expanse, often done with brief flips in narration from the first-person to an illustrative second person: “Nobody tells you how the first time you laugh after a major bereavement will destroy you,” Eve says. Laughter becomes alien to Eve after her husband’s death, and she has no desire to find happiness despite pressure from her family to move on. She is instead “content to wallow in [grief’s] cesspit for all eternity because it is like poking at a mouth ulcer with the tip of your tongue—inadvisable, painful, but addictive.”

Nwabineli’s writing simmers with poignant imagery, a testament to the heart-wrenching nature of grief. Individual memories of Quentin haunt Eve so much that she feels responsible for not just his death but also the “seismic shift” it came with. For Aspen, Eve’s mother-in-law, this shift means a sudden acrid disposition to Eve, as though she is solely responsible for Quentin’s suicide. This grief propels a stark resentment which Nwabineli excels at depicting. The drama between Aspen and Eve—from funeral arrangements to an imbroglio over a possible suicide note from Quentin—is plausible and relatable for a British-Nigerian family, one where Eve is taught how to make bitter leaf into ofe onugbu, where her sister speaks pidgin when annoyed.

Aspen’s character is akin to the clichéd persona of the black-hearted mother-in-law present in a plethora of Nigerian movies. The black-hearted mother-in-law, typically obsessed with her son and his properties, sidelines her daughter-in-law whilst yearning for grandchildren or eccentric wishes. Through Aspen’s dialogue, Nollywood fans can envision this persona. One might even imagine yet another version of Patience Ozokwor, one of the veteran actors known for such roles.

Nwabineli, however, transcends such clichés. Aspen’s idiosyncrasies are compounded by grief in a manner unmatched by Nollywood classics centering women such as King of Boys, the phenomenal 2018 political thriller, and Blackberry Babes, the 2011 comedy released back when Blackberry phones were in vogue. While these movies center lavish aesthetics and defiant female characters, Nwabineli succeeds at situating compelling women amidst a whirlwind of excruciating grief. Belinda, Eve’s best friend, called “Bee,” is described as a “vision” and “looks like she’s strolled out of the pages of a Vogue fashion editorial.” Gloria, Eve’s sister, a protective lawyer, “has little time for people screwing up at work.”

If there is any flaw in the novel, it is its hitchy transitions. Grief becomes such a palpable force that the plot is subsumed in a rather aggravated web of trauma. There are four parts of the novel: “Home,” “Work, “Away,” and “Home Again.” After the novel transitions from “Home” to “Work,” one notes obtrusive narrative switches and contrived momentum. Eve tries to return to work but her breakdown is further exacerbated, and soon she is laid off. Her brother begins working at Circle, the same company where Eve was fired. Eve falls from a bike one day and discovers she is pregnant. Not much is given on the child’s eventual birth aside from a vignette in the epilogue. The succession of events yields a landslide of trauma that justifies Eve’s grief and the ensuing anxiety but ultimately compresses her character. Eve becomes pitiable, depressing. And yet, despite this compression, Eve remains indelible. Through Eve’s subconscious fears and glaring dissonance, Nwabineli depicts the stark aftereffects of grief. Nwabineli, gesturing toward the novel’s melodrama and psychodynamic undercurrents, mentions Sigmund Freud in a conversation between Eve and Nate. Freud argued that the human mind entails three distinct parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. According to him, unconscious desires and impulses influence human behavior. Psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious mind, thus gives individuals insight into their own behavior.

For the novelist, psychoanalysis may be a vehicle to explore the behaviors and desires of multidimensional characters, by delving into their unconscious minds. Nwabineli’s writing does this, unveiling unconscious worlds with compelling temerity and sincerity. As Eve goes to group therapy and attends a posthumous photography retreat featuring Quentin’s photographs, she reminisces about their first days together and is faced with the stark prospect of mothering their child singlehandedly. The novel is submerged in loud grief, one where Eve does not know how to “mourn in silence…and make others comfortable.” Though such grief might seem like aggravated melodrama at many junctures in the novel, it is feasible and powerful nonetheless, especially in a culture where Nollywood, and Nigerian literature, rarely center grieving women the way this laudable debut novel does.

Tells the story of a young widow, Eve, as she deals with the fallout of her husband's unexpected suicide. She realizes all the ways she didn't know him and tries to navigate pushing forward and living without him.

You know what really surprised me? That this book made me laugh so much . I got into this and was so sure I wouldn't be able to finish it. The grief that hits you right from the beginning is just so hard and so palpable. But the humor, the wit, it pulled me back in. It made me realize that even though this story might tear at me, may make me cry, Eve's story deserved for me to read it. I don't know what else to say beyond feeling some of the things she felt, really helped Eve as a character. I understood more of her struggle than I thought I would.

Thank you for the ARC!

Heartbreaking and full of expected triggers but lord what a book. I read slowly to immerse myself and it was really very good. Cathartic one may say. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

It took me a while to get through this but only because it is the type of book you don’t want to rush reading! The author used humor to write about a delicate topic and had me invested in the characters. Can’t wait to read more from this author.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Suicide, suicide ideation, grief/loss

Eve's husband committed suicide and her world STOPS. Her family stands with her while she works through her grief, and her mother-in-law works through her own grief using anger directed at Eve. And Eve has to learn to live again, particularly for the child they didn't know was coming.

I hated this book.

It is REALLY WELL WRITTEN. It is plotted perfectly, and Eve's grief screams off the page, and it's all-consuming. It's so perfectly written, which is why I hated pushing my way through it. It makes you live and breathe her grief with her. It makes you feel her terror at the thought of never seeing Q again. It makes you wonder how you'll manage if you're not the one to die first. It. Is. Awful.

It is grief.

This book feels like the author was working through her own grief, and pushed it all out in the form of a book. My heart goes out to her, and I hope she healed some while writing this.

This was the hardest book I read this year. If I were giving it a score for how much I enjoyed it, it would be a 1 star rating. But the book is so well written, I simply can't do that.

This will break some people. It will help and heal others.

I'm just glad I'm finished, because I can't mourn with Eve anymore, and I'm grateful of the relief that it was just a book, and I can walk away now.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Very heavy. Much more than I expected. A good read, but must be in a good headspace for it. Characters well developed

I read this book for my book club and I 100% would not have picked it up due to the main topic.
It was not an easy read however I really enjoyed the writing style. The characters felt so real and relatable.
I would definitely be on the look out for new books by this author.

Somedate, Maybe by Onyx Nwabineti was the first I've read from this author but certainly not my last. I loved the characters but most of all the pacing, especially for an avid reader my self.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this book early! I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was very well done, and the story kept me interested. I believe my students/patrons would also love this book and will be acquiring it for the library!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick. Our library purchased and our patrons have been checking out and and enjoying the book. I see it is a popular book club choice as well we hope to have more oppurtinies to support authors like them

First off please, please check CW before reading. This book was a gut wrenching look into a woman’s life who has lost her husband to suicide. Her pain just radiates off the page. It’s painful to read at times. But Nwabineli’s writing is so raw and visceral. It’s messy and you don’t always agree with the way the characters handle their grief. But this is a book that is going to stick with me.

A stellar novel on grief, culturally rich. I loved the characters but the plot just didn't keep me going.

I started this one and just couldn't get into it. I felt very disconnected from the characters. I might be an outlier on this, so if this synopsis resonates with you, give it a try!

This could be a quick read, however, it is sad, filled with grief, an emotional roller coaster. I had to set it aside and take a walk or fix dinner to get it out of my head. Having suicides in my immediate family hit a little to hard dealing with Eve’s grief. Beautifully written, first person. Recommend for the strong at heart but be prepared to deal with Eve’s steps of grief.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trad Publishing, Grayson House for ARC read in exchange for my review.

I received this as a ARC through Netgalley. This story is one so unique, emotionally charged and raw in the grieving process of family impacted by people who die by suicide. The author painfully depicted the messy and beautiful family dynamics we experience in grief and beautifully described angels and hope found in grief.

god this wrecked me. so emotional and poignant. thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review!