This is the second instalment of this ‘story’ and it built on the last one and so much more. Lola Akinmade Akerstrom is an amazingly brilliant author. I love the intertwined lives of these strong black women in a country designed to see them fail. Fantastic

I didn’t read the first part of this series but I had no problem jumping in the story and understanding what was going on.

The book tells the story of three Black women living in Sweden and struggling with racism, their own bad decisions and other various life problems.

I found this book quite captivating with the plot but I didn’t particularly enjoy the structure of the book. I felt like it was flat and lacking some points of surprise before the last 50 pages or so.

I liked the characters, they felt like real people when making mistakes and dealing with problems but I would have enjoyed it more if the characters were generally more dimensional. However, having not read the first book in the series, it might be the reason why I felt the characters were lacking some character outside of the plot as I haven’t met them in the first book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book in some aspects but I would have liked it more had the structure of the plot been more gripping.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for a digital ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a sort of sequel but according to the writer can be read separately as well as a standalone book.
So the book has three narrators and follows their lives in a mostly white and pretty racist (not all overt, a lot of micro aggressions) Sweden. The narrators all have very distinct voices and it is lovely to have such a truly diverse group of characters in the book.
Without spoilers, of all the men in this book, only three are nice. The other men are gaslighting meanies. It’s a pity they weren’t more nuanced.
Because of the men in their lives, the three women’s lives basically revolves around their issues. And I feel like the women weren’t fleshed out well. Also a lot of the book does not pass the Bechdel test, which again is such a pity because all three women have incredible stories and strength.
All in all there were some really good highs, but the overly kvetchy/complaining women were not well rounded enough to get behind. Like whole chapters of one of the women just complaining.
I thought Yasmiin was the most interesting narrator and story.

Yasmiin is a refugee from Somalia, married to Turkish Yagiz, her former roommate and friend Muna tried to kill herself.
Brittany-Rae - from Atlanta - parents from Jamaica - mother to Maya, partner is Jonny, a super rich dude - bff Tanesha
Kemi - from Lagos, Nigeria - partner Tobias, wants to move back to the us, works for Jonny, had a steamy make out with colleague Ragnar. Twin with Kehinde who lives in the US.

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus, Lola Akinmade Akerstrom and Net Galley for the advanced copy of this fantastic book, which publishes on 23rd October 2023.

Please be aware of the trigger warnings that are shared at the beginning of this book, some of which are alluded to in this review:
Infidelity, sexual assault, infant loss and suicide.

The dedication of this book, “For the strong, looking for safe spaces to be weak”, sums this book up in one beautiful, succinct sentence.

Everything is Not Enough is a sequel to the hugely popular In Every Mirror She’s Black and I would highly recommend reading this first, as it lays the foundations perfectly for the sequel.

We return to the lives of Yasmiin, Kemi and Brittany who all live in Sweden and are each facing their own personal challenges.

Yasmiin, who fled Somalia now lives a seemingly happy life with her Turkish husband and child, but the secrets she keeps about her past threaten to disrupt everything, as her previously close friend and fellow refugee Muna makes an attempt on her life.

Kemi, who moved to Sweden from the USA to pursue a promising career opportunity, is regretting her decision to give up her successful position for one that is not as fulfilling as she had hoped. Coupled with her less than perfect relationship with Swedish boyfriend Tobias, Kemi is drawn into some rather self destructive behaviours, with the consequences that come with them.

Brittany meanwhile learns early on that her seemingly perfect marriage is based on secrets and past ghosts and she is left having to decide how she moves forward with this new information.

I really enjoyed this beautiful book, flying through it in a weekend. Lola so wonderfully writes human, raw emotions in a relatable and compassionate way. These women are each facing their own personal battles and making mistakes, life choices and experiences we can all relate to on some level or another. I loved the way Lola made these women empowered, despite the hurdles they had to navigate and never made them seem a victim, but a survivor.
This is an honest, thought provoking exploration of three women’s stories and I’m grateful I was able to walk alongside them for this brief time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for a digital ARC copy in exchange for this review.

Everything is Not Enough is a sequel to In Every Mirror She's Black, the latter of which I read immediately before this one. I really liked that first book; I found the characters well-written and compelling, and the story gave interesting insights into Black women's experiences in a fairly unfamiliar (to me) culture. Unfortunately, this follow-up left me disappointed.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I want to start with the good. It was a relief to hear more of Muna's story, having found the ending of the previous instalment rather bleak; I also liked the shift to Yasmiin's perspective, which added a lot of context to her brief appearances in the first book and fleshed her character out. Yagiz was also given a bit more to do, and while neither his nor Yasmiin's story was perfect, it was the most enjoyable part of the book. I flew through Muna's segments in the previous book, which gave some heartbreaking insights into the lives of refugees in Stockholm.

Now, what I didn't like so much. It felt like a wasted opportunity to dedicate two thirds of the book to carrying on Kemi's and Brittany's stories, when they felt like they'd reached a natural endpoint in the previous book. The plotlines for both characters didn't, in my opinion, justify the decision to continue following them; it would have perhaps been more interesting to pivot to other characters, as with Yasmiin. Many of the developments felt far too soap-opera and often rather ridiculous, and their endings felt very rushed. The continuing saga of Kemi and Ragnar, the latter a character who I didn't like when introduced in the previous book, felt very forced; I was bored and frustrated by their relationship, and found it hard to believe Kemi would throw away everything for him, based on her strong characterisation in the previous book. Ragnar's character was very two-dimensional and it was difficult to see what exactly Kemi found so compelling about him. He was also extremely unlikeable, as in the first book, and while there's nothing wrong with an unlikeable character, they do at least need to be given some background and motivation. The twist involving Maya Daniels also had me rolling my eyes; the 'confession' towards the end also felt far too easily given and there was very little tension in this scene to make it stick the landing. Finally, while it was nice to see a happy ending of sorts for Muna, there were absolutely no repercussions for the assault she committed at the end of the first book, which seemed unrealistic.

I'll happily return to In Every Mirror She's Black in the future, but unfortunately I can't say the same for its sequel.

Having not yet read Lola Akinmade Akerstrom's hugely successful novel, In Every Mirror She Is Black, I was a little apprehensive about starting the sequel, Everything Is Not Enough. But it proved surprisingly easy to slip into the lives of Yasmiin, Kemi and Brittany-Rae, three very different women struggling to find their place (and space) as Black women in mainstream Swedish society.

While Scandinavia is notoriously liberal, those familiar with Nordic societies generally say that fitting in is something that is asked of nearly every immigrant. No matter what your skills and credentials in your country of origin, you are invariably expected to prove yourself once again within this new milieu.

For Yasmiin, who has escaped from Somalia at considerable personal cost (in terms of what she had to do in order to survive prior to her marriage to her Turkish husband in Sweden), distancing herself from her past is part of her survival strategy as well as her plan for happiness in this new life with her husband and baby.

Now, that strategy is being jeopardized by the apparent attempted suicide of her friend, Muna, a fellow refugee, whom Yasmiin has distanced herself from, despite the two of them once having been extremely close. Of course, that might partly be explained by the fact that Muna knows things about her that Yasmiin would definitely prefer not to share with her husband.

For African-American Kemi, who left behind a successful professional track record in the US to take up a career opportunity in Sweden, life with both her Swedish boyfriend Tobias and her new job is proving to be less satisfying than she expected. To make matters worse, this is driving her to reckless and potentially self-destructive behaviour that is unlikely to end well for anyone involved in the situation.

Meanwhile beautiful ex-flight attendant Brittany-Rae discovers that her marriage to a powerful, white Swedish tycoon is based on his yearning for a lost love whom she closely resembles. And whom, Brittany-Rae realises, he has named their daughter Maya after!

Each of the three women is facing a major personal crisis, albeit ones that are quite different in nature. How they will be able to address their problems - and whether they can do so without significant collateral damage - remains to be seen...