Before the Mango Ripens is a novel about a Nigerian community in the 1970s and the last impacts of colonialism and Western religious beliefs. It was a slower read that really made me think and ponder. I didn't always love reading it (because it was slower) but it is a book that has themes that I keep thinking about.

I loved the audio narration to hear the accents and pronunciations, but this was a book I needed to read on the page to truly understand.

I really enjoyed this book. The historical fiction content, as well as the injustices that the missionaries brought to Nigeria and the African communities was well portrayed in this book.
The author does an excellent job of taking three very different characters, one who is working as a housemaid to the missionaries and not living a life of privilege, one woman of privilege who is a physician and her clinic is currently funded partly by missionary money, and a man who wants to lead the church, but is challenged by the missionaries because they do not think he is educated due to his environmental upbringing, and merging them to a common goal by the end of the book.
Wonderful read!

The books touches a lot on religion but not because it’s a religious book but bc it’s part of the background. The characters are quite complex, which kept me entertained throughout the story. The narrator does a great job being ing the story to light and the way they change their perspective/voice/expression for different characters which kinda tells you what kind of person they are really made me feel like this was a movie or that I was there in a sence. Not a spoiler or anything, most of the characters there are woman, which made me feel like this was a book about women’s lives and struggles because it does focus a lot on on things like this. I loved everything about it. I would read it again, I feel like if I did I would most likely find diffrent meaning to things they said, or did, that’s how much dept was put into this book. Thank you to the author for letting me share this experience.

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****