Who Drove Nearly All Lagos Men Mad?

by Ugochukwu Ugonna

Deep in the heart of Lagos -- the center of excellence, from Festac to Ikeja, Surulere to Sangotedo, the sizzling love lives of the diverse humans parading the dating space of this boisterous city are examined through this collection of eleven short stories which begs the Who Drove Nearly All Lagos Men Mad?

There's a story of the wife of an Afrobeats legend living her best life, another of a girl returned to the streets where she belonged, a Christian nurse who could not afford to exceed a certain body count before marriage, a mother unsuspectingly raising a mad man in her toxic home, the guy satisfied with just-the-tip, another of a match that was made in heaven, a girl who swiped right for hook-up but fell in love, and another who wants to burn down her Grandma's house because of penis.

Through this collection of love stories and steamy romance heating up the city on a daily, we are compelled to objectively examine the role we may have played in the success, or failure, of our happily-ever-after tales.

Genres: Fiction, Nigeria

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 22, 2023

Reviews

[Kevie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The +234 males are at it again

[LocdInBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, very poor execution...
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Was looking forward to the 'fear-women' rebuttal in response to "Nearly All the women in Lagos are mad"'s 'men are trash' spiel but this was an overwhelming let-down...

The stories, although they had potential, were basic and pedestrian; lacked any intriguing poltline, had one dimensional characters and always fell flat. They felt like a caricature of Nigerian movies

The writing was nothing to write home about. The writing was elementary and pretty bad. Aside from just simple bad writing, a few spelling errors and bad grammar in certain parts, the writer relied too much on vulgar language to give shock value which came off as off-putting instead.

One positive is that it's a perfect book to buddy hate-read and rant about and you will get a good laugh out of it whether from the ridiculous stories or bad writing, as long as you don't take it seriously ( that's why I gave it a 2 instead of the 1 I initially considered ).

[Jessica Macpepple · Rating 1 out of 5]

A poorly executed “rebuttal?” to a different book. Can’t get past the 2nd page without questioning the risk it’ll pose to my IQ and general grammar comprehension skills.

TLDR: eewwww. Yuck! Trash and burn

[Eva · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so ridiculous! I usually don’t leave reviews but I had to make an exception in this case. It’s wildly unrealistic and it does a very poor job of showing that men are not to blame for their madness. If anything, it emphasizes the contrary.

[Ellanet456 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Which kine book be this abeg

[Nwando Azoka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the author blocking me on Instagram cause I had some constructive criticism for him. Lmaooo
Typical Nigerian male behaviour. You wrote a horrible book, accept that it's horrible. There's a reason why Damilare Kuku's book has a 4 star rating and yours has a 2. In case it wasn't clear, it's because she's a good author and you're not.
You're just a misogynist who is using a woman's fame to berate women. With your traditionalist views on virginities and hymens and your 2d depictions of women's bodies.
Not to talk of the horribly written smut scenes. I don't know if you're writing those out of your own experiences with sex. But if you are, then my deepest condolences to whoever you slept with because that was terrible.
Like in the one story with Bolaji and Morenikeji. Bolaji apparently knew Morenikeji wasn't a virgin because it didn't hurt her on their first time... If the first time a woman slept with you was painful for her than your definitely doing something wrong imo.
And let's not talk about how you sympathised with a rapist. A woman was raped by a man and got pregnant leading to her having to marry her rapist and leave her while life behind but we should feel bad for the man instead because she doesn't forgive her???
Woman: you raped me
Man: but I should be forgiven cause I bought you a handbag
We say it's all 'fiction' but doesn't this represent an author's mentality?
And then we also have Emmanuel and Stella's story. Emmanuel was 18 in Ss3 and Stella was in Js3. Stella reported Emmanuel to the school principal because Emmanuel, an 18 year old SS3 boy, was trying to woo her, when she was in Js3. And his friend is angry cause he didn't beat her up when they met later in the future. What?
All in all this was a horrible read. Highly recommended if you want to ruin your day.

[LOVEs_Reading♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm extremely disappointed with this book, which purported to highlight the struggles men face in relationships. Instead, it delivered a disjointed and confusing narrative that failed to provide any meaningful insights.

One particular story that left a sour taste in my mouth was about a guy who is dating a girl. He constantly lies to her and cheats on her, and she catches him multiple times, but she stays with him until the final straw. She follows him to another city, where he claims to be going for business, but it's actually to meet his sugar mummy.

I'm confused - how is the lady the toxic one in this story? What does that have to do with anything about the book? Why is this story even in this book? It didn't make sense to me then, and it still doesn't. I'm officially cringing just thinking about it.

Another story that bothered me was about a couple whose relationship began with rape. The victim bears a child for her rapist, and he eventually decides to marry her. However, she can't shake off the traumatic circumstances that led to their marriage, and their home becomes toxic and disjointed. What's appalling is that instead of taking accountability, apologizing, and seeking counseling, the rapist decides to abandon his wife and take their son with him, claiming she's "mad". This storyline was not only infuriating but also triggering.

The writing style was another major letdown, with some scenes feeling like they were written in a sloppy, sensationalized manner. The lack of attention to detail and careless plotting made it difficult to become invested.

Overall,I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a thoughtful, well-written exploration of relationships. It's a disappointing and frustrating read that fails to deliver on its promises.

[Tessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a bad bad bad book. From grammar to poor skills in storytelling. This book gave the impression that it was a response to the well written Nearly all men in Lagos are mad but this was such a poor attempt. No direction whatsoever. OK so you wanna say women drove the men mad but the men in the stories are horrible people too. I think he shouldn't have tried to get fame riding on Nearly all men in Lagos are mad. Such a shoddy job.

[Chiomaszn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was painful to read. Heaved a sigh of relief when it was over. Great concept, terrible writing and execution. My eyeballs almost fell out of my head because of how hard I kept rolling it. Don’t try this again

[Silvia Nyambeki · Rating 2 out of 5]

In case you are wondering, the one star reviews are not a gross exaggeration.

[Micky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compared to the predecessor by Damilare, this fell a bit flat for me. I was expecting to read about the other side of the coin of relationships in Lagos, however it felt like it was a continuation of the first book where men still proved to be mad and women were rarely at fault. Hate making such statements so publicly because men should have a voice and platform too, but the book didn’t show me otherwise. It was also pretty sexual which I should have known, but was surprised.

I’m not mad that it was a short read. 2.5/5 I’d say.

[S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who Drove Nearly All Lagos Men Mad?" fell short of captivating me like its predecessor, "Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad." Lacked substance, forced explicit details, and didn't deliver the expected excitement. Disappointing. 🤦🏽‍♀️👎🏾

[aylizzlee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t get me started on the number of spelling mistakes in this book!! Wish I could rate it a ZERO. Only one chapter close to the end made sense, the rest? Absolute bull. Don’t waste your time please.

[EA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just seems like the author jumped on the bandwagon and popularity of “Nearly All the Men in Lagos are Mad”. From the title of this book, I was expecting a rebuttal, a series of stories explaining why Lagos men are the way they are, stories where the men were the victim. Only one story did that. The title doesn’t match up with the content, if anything most of the stories further buttresses that ‘nearly all the men in Lagos are mad’. I also feel like the author just wanted to write smut because most of the explicit scenes didn’t really add much to the stories.

[Dennis⭐️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

i just can’t take this book serious lol

[Ibey A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Editors and publishers need to really consider if this needed to be released

[Abena Ampomah Nuako · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. Not as much as Damilare's but right after. Some of the stories in this can easily fit into 'Nearly All Lagos Men Are Mad'. Some of the stories too are wild. I had a good laugh out of them.

[Itebogeng Precious❤️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a bad book, Amos expecting Caroline to forgive him for raping and impregnanting was wild.

[Didi F. Ekeh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book certainly fell short of expectations but there were some good stories, just not written in a gripping way. The book came off as too simply written, with no effort to sound like an articulate writer. The title of the book is quite catchy, I’d give him that. So many chapters started off good and fell flat at the end but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Plus, the writer only further convinced us that ‘Lagos men are truly mad’ 🤣 and women aren’t the ones who made them that way. So who drove nearly all Lagos men mad?????

[Reader]

Wasn’t worth the hype actually 🥲

[Juliana Carbonell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pool read at its best. Fast paced and superficial as most things in today’s world. Do not expect any depth into the human experience.

[Regomoditswe Rasekgwalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ironically I enjoyed the last short story more than the others. With this story, the author ties down the title of the book and makes a direct jab at the book Nearly all men in Lagos are mad which is a female authored compilation of short stories, with themes and location similar to the ones explored in this book. The irony here is that I enjoyed Nearly all men in Lagos are mad more than I did Who drove all the men in Lagos mad and that the former is female authored while the latter is written by a male author.

In retrospect I can appreciate the suggestion by the author that women drove men mad. Laughable really but I suppose these are inherent biases and I too am not immune to.

The book is enjoyable and would do well for beginner readers or those trying to get through a reading slump.

[Eunice✴️ · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars
It fell flat for me. When I heard about it as a rebuttal to "Nearly all the men in Lagos are mad", I was excited because that one made me laugh and I have reread it a few times and recommended it to others. This book though, I really did not enjoy the writing style, it was vulgar and off-putting. Some stories did not have a hook or anything and I was confused at the end of them. Also the stories proved that true true nearly all the men in Lagos are mad and that was not supposed to be the goal.

[Aramide · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book 2 stars for the effort of the publishers in actually allowing this to publish. What in the world? I reallyyyyyy tried to finish this book, like I struggled with each and every story and almost finished it, but I had to ask myself at what cost?! The cost was going to be my brain cells so I chose not to with just 30 pages left. I’m glad I didn’t complete this book. Goodness!!!!! I actually read Nearly all the men in Lagos are mad and if this is supposed to be a rebuttal then I’m sorry to this author, 2/10

[Andrew Bamidele · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I appreciate the author's intent to provide a counterpoint to Damilare Kuku's work, I found this book fell short of my expectations. Unfortunately, none of the stories left a lasting impression. In my view, the book struggles in two key areas: it lacks the strength to stand as an independent work, and it fails to present its counterarguments in a compelling manner. As a male reader who was hoping for an effective response to Kuku's perspective, I was left disappointed by this attempt.

[Bookmaniac_60 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book exceeded my expectations in every way. The book had it all, it's a compilation of short stories which had 𝙀𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙘, 𝘿𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙖, 𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙙, 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙈𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙋𝙊𝙑 that was very easy to understand and read.

Who drove nearly all Lagos men mad?, well that's is an answer no one can give

[Abena Odurowaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the title, I expected funny and crazy stories, but the first chapter was a letdown. I kept reading, hoping it would get better, but unfortunately, the stories remained mediocre. Overall, I'd rate it a 3/10. The writer has potential but could definitely improve.

[Ugochukwu Uzo-Ojinnaka · Rating 1 out of 5]

After enduring your book, I can say with all certainty that the men in Lagos were either born mad or made themselves mad.

What’s so funny to me is that I expected this to be a response to the men are scum rhetoric but after reading this, I’m even more convinced that men are scum.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay as a guy sef this book was bad. But you guys have said it all but no one has talked about that chapter "The Wednesdate" That was set in the South East!!! They didn't even go to Lagos or reference Lagos once in this chapter. Then what the freak is it doing in the book???

[Naza · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was ridiculously disappointing!

The characters felt shallow, the pacing was all over the place, and instead of being pulled into the chaos, I found myself rolling my eyes. What could have been a fun, sharp take on love and obsession in Lagos just didn’t deliver.