The Baby is Mine - Review

Author: Oyinkan Braithwaite

Genre: Novella

Format: Paperback

Pages: 94

This book held some first for me: my first COVID set books and I have finally read something by Oyinkan Braithwaite. The latter is my own fault, My Sister, the Serial Killer has been sitting on my shelf for a year, judging me every time I pick up a different book. Like so, so many others. As for the first part. It's always felt a bit too soon to jump into COVID set books. 

However, while this book is set during Lagos' first lockdown, it's more a fact of why Bambi is stuck where he is than anything else. This is why this was easy to jump into. There was no long-drawn explanation because Braithwaite already knows we know what these lockdowns looked like around the world. So Braithwaite didn't waste pages explaining it all. 

I have to say this was a weird little book, but it's the kind of weird that keeps you glued to the page. Because you just have to figure out what is going on. I thought this would be a case of who's the mother, but I got to be honest by the end I was also curious about the father. Comments were dropped, and things noticed that had me tilting my head to the side. Only one of those questions gets answered by the end of the novella. And, honestly didn't have a clear answer on who the mother was. At one point I thought it was one lady, then toward the end, I was like, maybe not. This made it hard to put down.

Another thing I loved about this book is every single character in this book is terrible, except for maybe the brother-in-law and Mide. We don't really see either for long enough for me to get a good reading one, but everyone else is the worst. And, for different reasons. Some like the Aunt are just mentally unwell, Bambi is just an absolutely terrible person, and so is his sister. The latter of which I think I might hate a little more than others. But, it was different to read a book where none of the main cast has any redeemable qualities about them. Though the Aunt came close, she has a really sad back story.

The book moves fast enough that in the ninety-four pages there is much of a lull, but I did leave with a few questions. Like what was wrong with the chicken because it was acting funny before it became dinner. But, also, what about the blood on the walls. Was the house haunted? None of these questions really needed answers, but they left me scratching my head.

This book would make for a really good mini-series as well. It's just weird and strange enough that I'd binge-watch that just as quickly as I binge-read this book. This was a great introduction to Braithwaite's writing style and I will be reading more from this author. 

HAPPY READING!!