Wahala by Nikki May - review

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Title: Wahala

Author: Nikki May

Genre: Contemporary fiction / thriller

Pages: 384

My rating: ★★☆☆☆

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I loved everything about the premise of this book: a close group of friends gets infiltrated by a fourth member whose continued interference creates cracks in the friendship. I love how all the main characters are not only mixed-race, but somewhere between two cultures. It’s something we’re seeing more and more of in the world, but I feel isn’t represented enough in literature yet. I loved the Sex and the City meets Big Little Lies vibes that the blurb was giving me. And I absolutely loved the brilliant cover art. However, I did not love the book itself. Here’s why:

First of all (and worst of all), the characters are just so unlikeable. Some are downright hateable – I’m looking at you Boo. Simi is superficial and selfish, Ronke’s a bit of a doormat (but still the best of the bunch), but Boo is just plain awful. She’s downright cruel to her lovely husband and daughter, who do nothing but support and love her. She’s unsatisfied with her life (which is understandable), but she decides to blame everyone else for her problems which she thinks justifies her nasty behaviour. Isobel is over the top and caricature-like and I find it confusing how the characters don’t see right through her immediately. Also, there’s a lot of emphasis on how she messed with the group, but Simi and Boo were already screwing up their own lives way before she showed up.

Secondly, the pacing is off. After a long build-up in which not much happens, the last few chapters of the book take a really weird turn with all the action-packed into the final pages, and not much resolution despite an (unsatisfactory) epilogue.

Third most, after most of the book being mostly believable and fairly relatable, the story ends on a bizarre and unrealistic note which left me cringing and rolling my eyes. And nobody gets what they deserve! Poor Ronke, the only decent one, is the only one who actually suffers.

I loved all the food descriptions, though. Warning, it will make you hungry! And there were some fantastic secondary characters. Auntie K, Didier, and Rafa stole the show for me. Can we read a story about them?