This book started off slow, but really picked up for me in the end. I really enjoyed this story as I love stories of families and especially sounding how the family tends to be held together by a matriarch so it was interesting to see how this family navigated the passing of theirs. There were a few funny moments which I actually didn't expect lol.

Pride and Joy didn't quite work for me.

While I really enjoyed the ways it touched on family and grieving, with a couple of places where humor brightened the tone, I did not like these characters by and large. I also feel like there were too many attempts to make the family dynamics seem super strained with no satisfying resolution to that tension, despite many of the characters growing and developing as the story went on.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.

Looking back at the description of this book after finishing it (and I skim read the second half because it was dragging), I am surprised to find it described as "Filled with humor and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page..."

There was very little humor, if any at all. The characters were certainly flawed, though I didn't find most of them relatable and they did not leap off the page.

I also don't think it's accurate to describe the story as if all of the family, except Joy, believes in Nancy's premonition. I'd say it was about half believers and half skeptics. The family dynamics were interesting, but so convoluted and hard to follow. The entire "resurrection" was so ridiculous as to be distracting and it's supposed to be the focus of the book. I had a hard time following the Nigerian way of speaking English and the actual Nigerian dialect scattered frequently throughout. When the sentences are in another language and there is no context to help figure out what is being said, I end up guessing or just glazing my eyes over on those parts.

I found this to be such a touching and wonderful story. About a family grieving. There were quite a few characters but each were interesting how they'd come into their lives and how they touched those in the story. It was important to delve into the secrets and hurts. I found a few parts to chuckle at, to break up the emotions, and I was so completely drawn into the story. It takes place over only a few days but really packs a punch as so much is worked through and experienced in those few days. Such a great read, I highly recommend it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This book was so full of humour and over-the-top antics, that had me locked in from the very beginning. This is a Nigerian-Canadian family drama that takes place over the Easter weekend in Toronto. Three generations of the Okafor family are brought together to celebrate the matriarch's birthday but the big birthday party quickly turns into a wake, with a prophecy that the dead will rise again, like Jesus of course on Easter.

This book had so much colour and I loved every moment of reading it.

A big-hearted Nigerian-Canadian family drama that takes place in Toronto over the Easter weekend, as type-A daughter, Joy plans her mother's 70th birthday party only to have it turn into a disastrous wake slash prophecy that her mother isn't actually dead and will rise again.

Full of humor and lots of emotion, three generations of the Okafor family deal with past hurts, secrets and eventually find a way to forgiveness and healing. Good on audio and perfect for fans of books like Black Cake and Dava Shastri's last day. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

My library already has this book on the shelf and I am obsessed with it. My coworkers have started to make their rounds of reading and they all express that they loved it as well. I wish I could read this again for the first time because I loved it so much.

4.25 stars

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The beginning of this book I honestly felt confused on what was going on with how many point of views it continued to switch from. But once I got past that, I really enjoyed this story of this Nigerian Canadian family, and I could tell that it was a strategic play on Onomé’s writing part. The course of the storyline is so short, but feels so much longer with the amount of growth and self-reflection we see in so many of the characters. Grief is a large part of this book, and I think Onomé does an incredible job of showing how differently that can look within a large family system.

CW: death/death of parent, grief, homophobia, lesbophobia

Really interesting premise and a good execution, which I've been struggling to find lately. I felt like I got to experience the protagonist's family life which is hard to capture. Great job.

I wrote about this on the Storygraph and Goodreads and sent links to various social media sites. I really liked this book. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6343997964

I'm not sure what it says about me that I identify so strongly with Joy, and it's a conversation I'm definitely going to have with my therapist. I also felt so much sympathy with her son, Jamil, and the knowledge of how experiencing family strife and harsh conversations stays with you forever. For everyone who has ever had a family that didn't see you, or didn't accept you for whatever reason, this is going to resonate. This is going to hurt, and it's going to feel like screaming into a void. I yelled out loud twice (at Michael and Nnenna, respectively) but it was also impossible not to rage at everyone a little bit.

A strange journey through love, grief, acceptance, forgiveness, faith, and prophecy, once you start reading you won't be able to stop. And you'll be on the lookout for brown cows.

Solid 3.5 stars
I was hesitant to read this @ first because I did not enjoy Black Cake AT ALL.

Joy is recently divorced & trying to plan her mom’s 70th birthday party with her Nigerian family members on the way. Her mom had other plans though, she took a nap and died in her sleep.

I was a little underwhelmed with this book ngl. It was a little funny but not hilarious!! It had a lot of potential but something is definitely missing from this book. The ending was rushed & I actually wanted closure on the other characters Nnenna, Nancy, & Jamil. It wasn’t a bad read overall.


Thank You NetGalley for the ARC

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this book. This book was god to the last drop. As a Canadian Caribbean person, could I ever relate to this family. It was so relatable and easy to read. It was a quick fun read.

A fun and entertaining read. I related to Joy and could easily empathize with her.
Many thanks to Atria and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Pride and Joy by Louisa Onomé is a touching and funny novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family dealing with the passing of their matriarch.
I really enjoyed this book. It is so well-written that I felt like I was watching a movie play out. Every character was relatable in so many ways that I couldn’t help but feel for them.
The words on the page will draw you into another world.

Thank You NetGalley and Atria Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Poor Joy! Just when she thinks she might have finally nailed it with a birthday party for her mother, her mother dies. Their large slightly dysfunctional religious Nigerian family is all there at the mansion Joy rented for the party and now, now because it's Easter weekend, they're waiting for her to rise again. The story is told from the third person perspective of several of the family members but Joy is the one you'll most sympathize with as she juggles all of them with her grief. Oh and her awful client, her ex and her son. This sometimes goes a little over the top but it's redeemed by the deeply felt emotion Onome has imbued into the story. You, like me, might learn a little about Nigerian culture (and food). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a good read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I mostly enjoyed the prior Louisa Onomé books I’ve read, so I was excited to read more from her, especially as Pride and Joy seems to be her adult debut. While her prior works focused more on teenage coming-of-age for a single Nigerian girl, I loved that this book pivoted to explore more mature topics and broader Nigerian Canadian family dynamics.
I admit I was initially a tad daunted, as while the book focuses heavily on Joy, there’s also a focus on her role within her family with its many relationships. I really took the time to study the family tree while reading to grasp how everyone was related to Joy, and each other. While the book could have suffered from “too many characters” syndrome, I feel like each was distinct and vibrant in their own right, with all their interpersonal dramas and rivalries.
Joy herself does sometimes seem like the least interesting character in that regard, but I also think that also makes her the right focal point for the book, centering and anchoring all of it. And she has her own arc of reckoning with grief in the wake of her mother’s death, even with her aunt claiming her mother will rise again.
The plot and pacing of the book is where I feel very conflicted. The plot is the family drama, so it’s natural for the book to be slower and more introspective. But it being over the course of a few days is where I felt it was something of a double-edged sword. Upon finishing the book, I was in disbelief that so little time had passed. It felt at times like it was so much longer, even though the chapter time-stamps would dispute that. The pacing definitely gave the sense that this took place over a longer period of time than it actually did, with it very much being a slow-burn.
Personal quibbles aside, I enjoyed this book overall, and would recommend it to readers looking for a family/domestic drama with Black characters.

Thank you Net Galley for my advanced copy.

This book was a bit slower paced for me & that was a little off putting, but I held on and I am glad I did. I love Nigerian familial topics and interactions. I was able to learn, laugh, and weep throughout.

I look forward to reading more Nigerian stories from this author.

"Nothing is louder than the stares of a hundred people waiting to see a miracle."

This book is a celebration of the dichotomy of moms and children, family and faith, grief and hope, and yes, pride and joy.

I loved the touches of magical realism interwoven with the faith community.

"This is the magic of stars and planets and Earth and life. This is something else entirely."

And Joy is absolutely the main character in this story. Her voice is distinct and meaningful - whether or not her family (or the reader) agrees with her.

Absolutely gorgeous. Highly recommend.

Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5

Warnings: Death of Parent, Grief, Homophobia, Toxic Relationship, Death of Sibling

Review: This contemporary fiction is filled with so much emotion that I think the best way to kick off this review is with a quote that I had highlighted: “But a lot has happened this weekend. We are not ourselves. No one can be. in the face of grief. Nothing hurts like death.”

I am all too familiar with grief and how heavy it can be, and while the core of this story is about the passing of a family member, I found this story to feel like a warm hug. It helped to remind me that there is no “one way” to feel or process grief. The vast number of responses to losing a loved one were shared as vignettes into various family members as they each learned the news.

While I tend to be nervous to read stories that include a large cast of characters. each one in this story was completely unique and recognizable. I was able to relate to or at least empathize with how they approached the situation (even the Auntie with a prophecy!). I was invested in each character so much so that I found it very satisfying to watch them all work through their individual character arcs. Also, naturally with a lot of people stuck in one place all getting bad news, there was some pretty tense family situations. Some were so jaw-dropping I had to stop reading and immediately share it with a friend!

Out of the entire family, I found myself relating heavily to Joy and her personal growth journey. Which is funny, as I didn’t expect that when I first started the book. When we’re introduced to her I thought to myself “at least I don’t need to be THAT much in control of the things around me”. Jokes on me. There were quite a few aspects to Joy that hit close to home for me. One, was her acting in a self-proclaimed family role and how frustrating she found it. Two, how she still feels like she’s fighting against the traditional family expectations. Three, how even in her late thirties she’s still struggling with identity and diaspora. And lastly, how she has to work towards becoming vulnerable and allowing herself to ask for help.

As much as I enjoyed that the story-telling moved through various perspectives, I did find some of the side character moments to feel like nice anecdotes but not necessarily ones that I felt added to the main story. There were also times that the jumps between characters felt so quick that I had to reorient myself to understand who I was now following. There were also a few characters that would have been nice to see further developed, such as Nnenna’s children. Despite all of that, I was engrossed in the story and eager to see if each character would find healthy ways to express their inner thoughts with their fellow family members.