Wow this book was so good better than I hoped it would be.
Told the story of Sam and Efe from both sides, loved how their love story unfolded over decades just as you thought you knew where the story was going challenge that are often unspoken popped up. The expectations that were put on Efe as women/mother/wife and her unhappiness on having to deal with certain things was written in a way that was relatable. Loved that she was able to do things on her terms do allow her to find herself, first book I’ve read from this author will be reading more in the future.

The story begins with us meeting Sam whose wife Efe has left him and their young daughter Liv. We are yet to find out why however the book goes back 19 years to when Efe and her sister Serwaa arrived from Ghana to London.to find out their story. It has not been a happy or easy life from the start for Efe and I enjoyed finding out how Efe and Sam met and their wedding in Ghana. I liked how the book was split between London and Accra, from the difference in cultures, scenery and way of life.

The topics covered include self harm, family pressure, depression and unwanted pregnancy's

I found the book to be heartbreaking and very sad in parts and really just wished happiness on Efe, I was really rooting for her to find it.

I will be looking out for more form this author and recommending to others.

A story of a marriage gone wrong after an unplanned pregnancy. I felt sorry for both of the main characters at times. So many difficult topics covered with compassionate writing. I have a picture in my head of how it would end and was shocked to discover that I was wrong.

DNF @ 67%
I think where this book failed to grab me is with the characters, maybe if it was written in 1st person it may have been more gripping, but the writing style made me feel so disconnected from all of the characters

Also the synopsis of this book leads you to believe its about a marriage in turmoil after an unexpected pregnancy but that part of the story doesn’t start until later on in the book, at first you’re just following Efe & Sam’s life story, how they met etc and none of it made me invested in them as a couple.
I didn’t believe in their love unfortunately not to mention the affair (poor Brian)

The was 1 part of this book I finally started to feel something for Efe, when she has the breakdown on the train, as a mother myself I really related to the mental and physical exhaustion she was going through being tired all the time and feeling like it will never get better
But even this didn’t go in depth or last long because it went straight to Sam stepping up and all of a sudden the baby is 4 and they’re happy.

I think the checking in on them every year way of telling this story stopped me from connecting with the characters, it almost felt like those family members you don’t think about until you see them every Christmas and they give you a quick run down of the past 12months of their life.

This will be a great story for some but for me I wish it was written differently

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% my own.

This book follows a British-Ghanaian couple from teenagers to an accidental pregnancy to the female main character leaving.

The main characters in this book were quite frankly awful. The female main character, Efe, was incredibly selfish and unlikeable and the male main character, Sam, was clueless.

Every part of this book felt undeveloped. Even when Efe and Sam first got together it felt underwhelming and there was little buildup.

There is a countdown throughout the book that led to yet another underwhelming event.

A lot of the early chapters felt like they were padding out the novel, and I struggled to keep reading (the structure and the time jumps didn’t help). However, by the half way mark the novel seemed to have found itself. It explored, in depth, the experience of being a woman who doesn’t want to have children; the cultural and familial pressure to do so anyway; the impact on mental health, sense of self, and life decisions when you are manipulated into motherhood; and the battle not to let your identity and purpose be entirely consumed by that motherhood. The husband’s role in this was so frustrating to read, but as the novel progressed there was real character growth and what felt like a serious consideration of the burden of care that is placed on women, finally recognised from a male perspective. This would make such a good book club read because there is so much to discuss, but I’m trying not to give away any spoilers. Other themes included migration and feeling separated from home, racism, sexism and access to healthcare, people pleasing, self-expression, and mental health. But just as I was starting to enjoy the book, the ending had to disappoint me. The author and the characters had made so many strides forward, and the ending completely undermined them. One day I want to read a novel about a woman who doesn’t want children that allows her a happy ending without compromising her feelings, but that is not this book. Reading this was a rollercoaster of mixed emotions, but it was worth it for the parts that worked well.

This is an ok read, but I found I couldn’t really relate to the characters, nor get into the storyline,
The jumping back and forth in the timeline was irritating, without any indication of which timeline we were reading about. Well enough written but not really my kind of book, I’m sorry to say.
But lots of other reviewers loved it, so maybe just me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

A raw and truthful novel about a marriage in crisis, and I am very glad that Black British authors are still getting to be put out there in front of general readerships - long may this resurgence continue.

I actually quite liked this.
I don't usually go for contemporary novels but decided to take a chance with this one, and it reminded me of something I would see on TV. The characters are likeable enough, but the writing style sort of places them apart from the reader; we don't really get to see their thought processes and instead they just do things without us knowing why. The dialogue is realistic and the actual writing itself is a good mix between descriptive and the super to-the-point style commonly found in contemporary novels. A good, solid read.

This was such a heart-wrenching book! A tale of two lovers from teens into adulthood, set over 20 years. Starting with a chapter set '5 months before', the first half of the book then jumps back to 20 years before and works its way back almost to the starting point, and the second half then continues on from that point. It's a long timeline and with the first half being mostly one chapter set sometime during each year, sometimes a lot did happen in between the chapters so I feel like some of them could have been a little bit longer? But I loved that it let us see their relationship right from the start rather than joining partway through and just picking up the past from things they thought or discussed together.
Both Sam and Efe were such complex characters and seeing them over such a long amount of time meant you got to see them at their best and their worst. I think it was great but it did mean that at times I didn't like them. It was odd though, I liked Sam less as the book went on but Efe more! They definitely sometimes made poor choices and I wasn't keen on the cheating but I won't say too much about that. I don't want to give anything away but although I feel like I would have handled things quite differently, I definitely felt for Efe because I can relate to her and felt sorry for the ways Sam pressured her. It's also not a view I've seen covered a lot in books so it was nice to see it playing such a big part in Rootless.
I'd definitely recommend giving this a read!

The book was gripping and emotional the whole way through it gave a beautiful depiction of depression in its many fascists but also the beauty of discovering yourself through your wounds.

In a Nutshell: Supposed to be a story about a ‘British-Ghanaian marriage in crisis’. Turned out to be a story about two self-centered individuals who don’t know what marriage or parenthood means. Shallow unlikeable characters and jumpy plot development make this a ‘rootless’ novel, struggling to discover where it belongs. This is an outlier review.

Story Synopsis:
Sam, a UK native of Ghanaian origin, is the ideal student: sincere, focussed on becoming a lawyer.
Efe, newly arrived from Ghana and staying with her aunt in the UK, wants to study art history but her conservative family wishes for her to choose something more secure.
After many years of friendship, Sam and Efe gravitate towards each other and then towards marriage. But when it comes to beginning a family, their thinking doesn’t match. When Sam arrives home one day to find that Efe has run away to Ghana, the two of them need to decide if their marriage is worth fighting for.
The story is written in the third person limited perspective of Sam and Efe.

Where the book worked for me:
😍 Some of Efe’s concerns about parenting/being a mother were quite heartfelt and genuine. The story highlights how it is always the wife who needs to make the greater sacrifice when it comes to pregnancy or motherhood, no matter how understanding the husband.
😍 There were a few good insights into Ghanaian food and culture. (Not as many as or in the way I would have liked though.)

Where the book left me with mixed feelings:
😔 The story begins with the time of ‘Five months before’, then moves to ‘Nineteen years Before’, and steps ahead by one year in every chapter. Thus each year focusses on an important event in Sam’s and Efe’s lives, either together or individually. Gradually, the story reaches the initial time point, and continues to move ahead by a month or a week. Thus you know that zero hour is going to be something crucial. This writing choice helped cover a lot about the characters over the years, but at the same time, the fast-forwarded plot progression left me feeling as if I didn’t get to know them at all.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
😣 The story turned out to be a parenting drama as much as a marriage drama. However, the parenting issues were written very flatly. So wherever I should have felt tremendous emotions, I felt nothing! Well, maybe except irritation.
😣 Other than the date and time indication, there was nothing to suggest that the scene was taking place in 1997 or 2004 or so on. Every scene felt the same in its atmosphere and setting.
😣 A character-oriented story always works better with endearing characters. Here, I could stand neither Sam nor Efe. Their connection to each other wasn’t evident at all once their relationship moved towards the romantic. It was sad how a journey of nineteen years still didn’t make them communicate openly with each other, and how each felt like their point of view was the right one. Both were wrong in many ways, and sadly for the book, two wrongs didn’t make a right this time around.
😣 The plot development is very ad hoc. For instance, Efe was in the UK in her childhood, but after a traumatising incident, her parents took her and her sister back to Ghana and swore never to return to the UK again. Yet, these very parents send the two young girls back to the UK a few years later, all alone, without any worry about the past trauma. Similarly, Efe is highly passionate about her career, to the point of not wanting a child. And yet she escape to Ghana without any intimation to her workplace and isn’t in any hurry to come back.
😣 The writing is quite basic, I am sorry to say. There are references to some facts that comes up once in the plot and aren’t brought up ever again. There were even a few logical loopholes. Answer me this, ladies, as I am sure we all have gone through this at some point or the other. If your sanitary pad is overflowing, and you are *seated*, will you be able to see the blood trickling down your thighs? What kind of weird anti-gravity menstrual blood is this?!?!
😣 The ‘zero hour’ scene is so ridiculously out of place that I would have thrown the book at the wall had I had a physical copy. I hated the ending, not because of what happened but because of how it was written, almost like a ‘diabolus ex machina’.
😣 Every single Ghanaian character is straight out of the box. The overbearing parents and the interfering relatives are clichéd to the core. Efe’s sister, being the only decently likeable character in the whole book, is a minor exception, but even she has a fixed role to play. The Ghanaian part of the story seemed to emphasise only on the negatives of the country.

For a debut work, this is quite ambitious, probably too much so. Considering the heavy topics and dark emotions, maybe this could have turned out better in the hands of a more experienced writer.
To me, it was senseless and pointless to trudge through ‘Rootless.’ It didn’t provide what it promised. There are far better books about motherhood struggles and PPD out there, and this one just left me feeling blasé in comparison, with the flat and unlikeable characters adding to the frustration. Then again, this is an outlier opinion, so please go through the other gushy reviews and see if you want to give this a go.

2 stars.

My thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the DRC of “Rootless”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this worked out so badly.

Triggers: The content gets quite dark, so if you are sensitive about motherhood or pregnancy related traumas, proceed with care.

Review:

This book is an emotional roller coaster. It’s a drama-filled, suspenseful story. After holding your breath for something good, the author breaks your heart into tiny little pieces. I was like WHAT!!! HOW!!!

The writing in this book is great. The author did a beautiful job of unfolding a complex story with a touch of grace for each character. By the time I got to the end, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for each character. The story drew me in with a heavy pull, with such a force that I couldn’t help but finish the audiobook in a few hours.

This story is unforgettable. I am shocked that this is Appiah’s debut novel.
I loved that the book explored Ghanaian culture- people, places, food, customs and traditions. I think at a point I felt, the writing is over-embellished with Ghanaian-ness.

The two PoVs made me appreciate each character’s complex story. I think the author did a great job with PoVs. Each character is flawed and acts out of passion and hope.

I don’t know how I feel about the audiobook, the Twi is wrong and most of the pronunciations of the Ghanaian names are wrong.

I highly highly recommend this book!

This book was very conflicting to me. The first 20-30% were fun to read. I'm always a sucker for backstory and learning about characters before we see them together, and we truly got to see Efe and Sam being their own persons and having a good friendship before they actually got together. I like establishing relationships before we get into the actual problems in a book, it makes me root for these characters more.

However, as interesting as their build-up throughout their teen years was, the rest of their story felt incredibly lacklustre to me. The writing didn’t really draw me in, might just be my preferences getting in the way, but there wasn’t any depth there. It felt more like I was reading the very first draft to something that could one day become a very good book. Their feelings for one another came out of nowhere, suddenly they’re in love and always have been, but it’s never actually explained to us or alluded to. The build-up to it was more explained than shown, a running theme throughout the entire book. Major scenes like them becoming a couple and getting engaged aren’t even actually added, they’re skipped over, and since there was so much focus on their teen years together, I thought it was strange not to include milestones like getting together and their engagement. It felt like we had all the time in the world at the beginning of the book, but as it progressed, the author realised we didn’t have much time left to tell this story, so she skipped major events in their relationship to actually get to the part the book was actually about.

In the end, this is an entertaining and heartbreatking book that a lot of people are going to enjoy reading, but there were certain aspects that clouded my own reading of it too much for me to enjoy it to the extent I thought I would!

A story of love, friendships and lost souls.
The story has a strong Ghanaian theme running through it. Lots of phrases and food names as well as tribal/area customs.
Both Efe and Sam have different wants and needs but really struggle to communicate their own deep issues out loud.
The story travels between London and Ghana.

Rootless absolutely captivated me from beginning to end. It is a story of finding a place in this world that feels like home. Or a person.

We begin in 2016 with Sam, husband and father rushing home desperately to find his wife Efe missing. The story also begins with a sub heading of five months before. We then skip back to 1997 and with every chapter work our way forwards to pick up the action. The countdown increases the sense of suspense, we know something is going to happen at zero hours, but we don't know what.

Efe and Sam were friends long before they were lovers. They confided in one another, they had Sunday movie marathons, they were always drawn to one another. But they resisted the pull for many years until it became clear their love was irresistible.

Life was good. They were happy. But there was one big stumbling block. Sam longs for a family, whilst Efe is adamant children are not for her. When an unplanned pregnancy throws her off kilter, Sam reassures her that it will all be fine. And so Olivia is born.

But it isn't all fine. Efe is drowning. She's sinking further and further into depression and exhaustion and nobody is hearing her silent screams.

As time passes, life becomes more manageable and Efe feels happier again. But another unplanned pregnancy sets her off on a path that will ultimately have devastating consequences.

A beautifully written story about love and loss, there is so much depth and raw emotion in Rootless that made it so compelling.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this one. Such a powerful and emotional read. Please check TWs before.

Fav quote: " ‘I wonder why we do that,’ she says. ‘Do what?’ ‘Measure a woman’s strength by the amount she is able to endure?’ "

REVIEW:
I'm not gonna lie, this book broke me y'all. This book knocked my socks off in the best way possible.
The characters were so complex, and their feelings so raw, you experience everything with them and through them, their struggles, their joy, their sadness and their despair. It's been a while since I experienced such emotions with a book.
I'm still struggling to shape my thoughts tbh, it's still so fresh and raw in my head (even though yes, I've finished it over a week ago).

This is the kind of book that is important in our day and age. This is the kind of book that will make you feel something, that will shake you to your core, leave you pondering life and your beliefs. A story about a couple going through life, how marriage isn't a piece of cake, and how motherhood is neither a given, nor a walk in the park.
It's a story about love yes absolutely, but it's also a coming of age story, a story about cultural clashes, about motherhood and its hardships and how each woman has her own view of it.

I honestly cannot believe this is a debut novel considering how amazing the writing and everything was. This book tore my heart in half, and I know I'll think about it for a long time.
The only reason it didn't get 5 ⭐ is because I was not prepared for the last few chapters and I am still in denial over them 🙃

➡️ 4.5 ⭐

Thank you NetGalley and The Borough press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Efe and her sister arrive in London from Ghana to finish their education ,It is the 1990's. Efe meets Sam a fellow Ghanahan and they become friends. This story focuses on Efe and her experiences as she tries to fulfill her parents expectations. While Ghanahan culture plays a key part it is easy to relate to the choices Efe has to make at key life stages.
It is an engrossing story with empathetic characters.A highly recommended read

Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah is a powerful and thought-provoking debut novel that explores the themes of identity, belonging, and family. The book follows the story of Gifty, a young woman who has grown up in the UK with a Ghanaian heritage, struggling to find her place in the world.

Appiah's writing is lyrical and evocative, and she captures the complexities of Gifty's experiences with great sensitivity and nuance. The story is told through a series of flashbacks and present-day events, and the author does a fantastic job of weaving together these different threads to create a rich and complex narrative.

What sets Rootless apart from other novels is its exploration of the immigrant experience and the challenges faced by those who straddle two different worlds. The book offers a nuanced and insightful look at the tensions and conflicts that arise as Gifty tries to reconcile her Ghanaian heritage with her British upbringing.

Overall, Rootless is a beautifully crafted and deeply moving novel that offers a compelling portrait of a young woman's struggle to find her place in the world. It is a testament to the power of family, community, and the human spirit, and a reminder of the importance of empathy and understanding in our relationships with others. Highly recommended.