This Kind of Trouble - Tochi Eze - ★★★

AUTHOR: Tochi Eze

GENRE: Domestic Drama

PUBLICATION DATE: August 5, 2025

RATING: 3 stars.

In a Nutshell: A dual-timeline domestic drama exploring the effects of contradictory beliefs on a marriage. Character-driven. Interesting exploration of the central theme and some other tough topics. Flawed but well-sketched characters. Thin plot with too many themes. Good use of the Nigerian setting. Slow-paced. Not everything settled at the end. Somehow a bit distanced in execution. Quite ambitious for a debut. A good one-time read.

Plot Preview:

Then in 1960s Lagos. Independent-yet-traditional Margaret didn’t expect to form a relationship with British-born half-Nigerian Benjamin. But their rapport is strong, and despite indications from both their families that they should separate and despite learning that their pasts are more connected than they knew, they get married in secret. But the burden of marriage and parenthood on a young couple without familial support is always high. Margaret’s worsening mental health becomes the final straw in breaking their relationship.

Now in 2005. Benjamin and Margaret, both in their sixties, haven’t been in touch for decades. Margaret stays in an upscale community in Lagos while Benjamin, after another broken marriage, stays alone in Atlanta, USA. However, a couple of events make Benjamin realise that he ought to return to Lagos and confront the unsaid issues of the past, all of which still have repercussions on Benjamin, Margaret and their family.

The story comes to us in the third-person POV of Benjamin and Margaret from the two timelines. There is also a third timeline set in 1905, exploring a century-old incident that still has bearings on the lives of the main characters.

Bookish Yays:

🙌🏻 Benjamin and Margaret and their character development. Both are flawed, making it tougher to take sides in their marriage.

🙌🏻 The depiction of Benjamin and Margaret’s marriage, tracing the evolution of love from the initial heady phase of forbidden love to the weight of marriage and parenthood and the struggle that persists even after a breakup.

🙌🏻 The contrasting approach of their two cultures when it comes to certain topics. I especially loved how it highlighted the difference in attitude towards mental health issues. Also a good exploration of superstitions and traditional beliefs vs. modern Western thinking.

🙌🏻 The characters always sound their age, no matter the timeline.

🙌🏻 The complexities of Benjamin’s mixed-race background in Nigeria where he’s a white-looking outsider.

🙌🏻 The Igbo-Nigerian experience, coming through their customs and indigenous beliefs. The book also highlights the impact of British colonialization on the local way of thinking. (I always find parallels between Nigerian and Indian experiences. We too are equally torn between our traditions and modernity.)

🙌🏻 The prose. Lyrical, not purple.

Bookish Okays:

🤞🏻 Too many characters at the start, because of which not all get a well-rounded development. The 1905 timeline is trickier in this regard, but character connections become clearer by the middle of the book. Thankfully, two of the timelines have the same main pair, even though the secondary characters vary.

🤞🏻 The use of three timelines to narrate the story. The structure is clever but the back and forth gets a bit tedious at times. The 1905 timeline is very slow at the start but rushed at the end.

🤞🏻 The 1905 story takes a while to establish its connection with the other timelines. So we cannot immediately understand where it's going. The connection is heavily reliant on traditional Nigerian thinking and might not be easy for outsider readers to accept. We need to keep an open mind.

🤞🏻 As with most debut novels, the plot spreads itself thin, tackling not just intergenerational trauma but several other themes, many of which are dark. Because of the overload of topics, most don’t make a deeper emotional impact as the handling is just surface-level. Regretful, because some of the themes are really good.

Bookish Nays:

✋🏻 I am not sure why, but despite the dramatic potential of the story, I never felt personally invested at any time in any of the characters. Something in the writing kept me distanced. Wish I knew what it was!

✋🏻 The pacing is slow and the plot gets a bit repetitive in between.

✋🏻 The drama is way over the top at times. So instead of feeling empathetic, I just felt annoyed at the whining and shrieking in the dialogues.

✋🏻 So much miscommunication! Answers are vaguely given at random and questions are always avoided.

✋🏻 The number of times virgins and breasts are mentioned! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Might be a historical/cultural thing, but still annoying.

✋🏻 The vague ending. Several important issues are left dangling despite the apparent resolution.

Overall, while I like this debut novel enough, I feel like it didn’t reach its complete potential. The central theme could have been mind-blowing, but the approach somehow makes it a bit dull. A little more emotional intensity would have set this firmly in four-star territory.

I wouldn’t recommend trying this book on audio. With the plethora of characters and the complexities of the three timelines, it might be befuddling to figure out the plot with one’s ears alone.

Recommended to readers who would enjoy an OwnVoices family drama studying the complex impact of external factors on a relationship. It is not a must-read but it is also not a regrettable read. Better to pick up on a slow-mood day.

My thanks to Random House UK and Cornerstone for providing the DRC of “This Kind of Trouble” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.