There is no doubt about the truth that through reading, women are provided the tools to navigate life’s blows. Through reading, we also find the ability to accept joy when it comes.
Sometimes, our love or hate for the lives of fictional women can make us wish we could go into a book to sit side by side with them.
In our latest listicle, Urban Woman Magazine asked some women to share the fictional women they will love to spend a day with and why.
Read their responses below.
MJ
The lady in Second Class Citizen, Adah.
Adah, please live for yourself. I understand things were hard, but give yourself a breather and leave that man you call a husband alone. You have spent so much of your life carrying everyone else’s dreams, expectations, and burdens while neglecting your own happiness.
I would tell her that her intelligence, ambition, and resilience are not selfish traits. She doesn’t need anyone’s permission to pursue the life she wants. I admire how she kept pushing for education and a better future despite every obstacle placed in her path. Many people would have given up long before she did.
What I would want her to run away from is the belief that enduring endless suffering is proof of love, loyalty, or strength. Sometimes strength looks like staying; other times it looks like walking away. Adah deserved peace, respect, and a partner who celebrated her dreams instead of trying to crush them.
More than anything, I’d want her to spend that day imagining a life where she is the main character of her own story; not just a survivor, but someone allowed to be happy.
EY
Ifemelu from Americanah. Nnu Ego from Joys of Motherhood.
I’d want to give both of them a big hug.
VB
Taiye Adejide from Butter Honey Pig Bread.
1. We almost share a birthday (one day apart) so she’s my spirit animal. We are veryyyy similar.
2. I love how her mind works, love that she wears her heart on her sleeve and she cares for The People She Chooses To Love ™️.
3. She’s a chef so I shall be her taster 🤭.
4. She’s just as sane as I am.
She should stop cutting herself open for people who won’t bleed for her. She should trust her gut more. I’d also tell her Happy Pride Month!
BN
Mine would be Monife from Cursed Daughters. I just want to tell her that men are crazy and they will confuse you, sometimes destabilize you, but I want you to remember that you are the prize.
No matter how handsome and wonderful the golden boy appeared to be, you are the actual prize. There will be many golden boys, so please don’t end your life because of him.
MN
Nao from my favorite book, A Tale for the time being.
There’s nothing spectacular about her, but she was a very normal girl who documented her life leading up to her suicide and I want to know how.
TJ
Villanelle from Killing Eve.
Tell her I love her, she was unloved and it ruined her.
Things I admire her:
– her sense of fashion and lifestyle.
– her having her money in the bag.
– her sexuality.
– her discerning skill.
– her killer instinct, my favorite.
TA
It would be Sybil, the protagonist in The Correspondent by Virgina Evans.
I would tell her not to allow guilt over her son’s death to rule her emotions and relationships.
I would tell her to accept the love advances of her neighbour Mr Lubeck in time so she spends more of her years with him.
I would tell her that she should have attended her late husband’s burial even though she hates flying because she needed to say some things to her daughter and to him.
I would also tell her I admire her for her person and the way she carried herself all through the book.
Angel Nduka-Nwosu is a writer, journalist and editor. She moonlights occasionally as a podcaster on As Angel Was Sayin’. Catch her on all socials @asangelwassayin.