The Unsentimental Truth: Reviewing Adesuwa Nwokedi's Adanna

ADANNA BY ADESUWA NWOKEDI

I first read Adanna in 2024, not out of a deep desire to read fiction, but simply because I had just graduated and needed something to keep my mind engaged. A friend recommended the book and, in that moment, I had no idea I was stepping into a story that would leave such a mark.

For people who have no idea about this book, Adanna was a child bride who was forced to marry a Chief to save her family. Her family’s decision to marry her off at such a young age was triggered by severe financial ruin due to a loan shark, the collapse of a major business deal, and her sister becoming gravely ill.

During her marriage, she endured severe humiliation and was sexually abused. Even after she found a way to leave, she ultimately returned to the abusive home because she couldn’t get any work and needed to continue supporting her brother's education. Her intense suffering began after her husband was murdered and she became the prime suspect.

Her continuously increasing problems reveal how life does not always move in a straight line from struggle to relief. Sometimes, your life actually goes from bad to worse and that you’re going through something today doesn’t automatically mean tomorrow will be better. That’s just the facts and not sentiments.

Emotional Reality

One of the most striking reactions to Adanna is the claim that her suffering is exaggerated. A lot of readers have said things like, “bad things cannot happen all at once” or “the kind of hardship Adanna faced in the book was unrealistic”, but in my honest opinion, I think it was very realistic and this is one of the reasons the book stood out for me.

it didn’t sugarcoat life, It didn’t pretend that every story has a smooth, inspirational arc, instead, it captured the truth many people silently live with, that trauma, setbacks, and disappointments can come in waves.

From the first chapters, it became really clear that Adanna was not a light read, it is the story of a girl whose life unfolds with a force that is both fascinating and unsettling. Adesuwa Nwokedi didn’t shy away from emotional depth, or the heavy realities many young women face, instead, she leans into them, unwrapping Adanna’s world layer by layer.

Themes

• Beauty as a Burden, not a Privilege

One of the most powerful themes in the book is how Adanna’s beauty shaped her life long before she even understood its meaning. While society often celebrates beauty as an advantage, Nwokedi showed the darker, more dangerous side of it. Instead of opening doors to opportunity, it opens doors to exploitation, misunderstanding and pressure.

It explored how young girls are sexualized before they’re fully grown, how the society creates expectations they cannot meet, and how a girl’s physical appearance can become a burden she carries in silence.

• Family Responsibility and Expectations

A significant part of the novel revolves around family, not family as a soft place to fall, but family as a structure that places enormous weight on the shoulders of the young. Adanna became the emotional and sometimes financial backbone of her home long before she was ready.

• Poverty as a Silent, Merciless Character

Nwokedi doesn’t treat poverty as a background detail; she makes it a breathing force in the novel. Poverty dictated the rhythm of Adanna’s life. It influenced her decisions, the people she trusted, the risks she took and the opportunities she lost.

What’s powerful is how the author showed that poverty isn’t just the absence of money, it is the presence of fear, desperation, shame, and sacrifice. It becomes a cycle, one that swallows innocence and forces maturity and most importantly, it reveals how difficult it is to dream when you’re fighting to just survive.

• Silence, Shame & the Things Women Endure Quietly

Throughout the book, Adanna carried burdens she couldn’t speak about. She internalized pain because the society taught women to be quiet, to be strong, to endure without question.

• Resilience in the Face of Repeated Hardship

Adanna’s resilience is not loud, perfect, or glamorous. It is the kind of resilience that looked like simply waking up and trying again. It looked like surviving when survival felt impossible.

Nwokedi didn’t portray her as a superhero; she portrayed her as human. Adanna fell, failed, made mistakes, got overwhelmed, questioned herself, and felt broken but she kept moving.

Writing Style & Strengths

Adesuwa Nwokedi’s writing is simple, clean, and emotionally effective, I was so moved by the narrative that I literally cried throughout almost every chapter. She knows when to slow down and linger on a moment, and when to move swiftly through scenes that speak for themselves.

The narrative is written in a way that keeps you turning pages while also forcing you to sit with the emotions each chapter brings. The dialogue felt real, the conflicts felt authentic and the storytelling captured both the beauty and brutality of the human condition.

Final Verdict

Reading Adanna at a transitional point in my life made the lessons even sharper. The book reminded me that life isn’t always linear or predictable, hardships don’t follow a scheduled pattern, and healing doesn’t come wrapped in neat packages.

What makes Adanna a powerful read is its honesty, the kind that confronts the reader, challenges sentimental ideas of suffering and reflects the realities many young women quietly endure.

If you’re looking for a novel that is emotional, character-driven, culturally grounded, and unafraid to tell the truth, trust me, Adanna is a book worth reading. It is not a pretty story, but a real one.

Have you read Adanna? What is your conclusion? Tell me what you think in the comments?