3 stars

This is my first book I’ve read by Nnedi Okorafor and with the things I’ve heard about her and the premise of the book, I expected a lot. Unfortunately although I did overall like the book, it did not live up to my expectations. Sometimes I was having a great time, others I felt like I was forcing myself to keep reading.

The things I liked:

The premise and setting. It was so refreshing to have an afro-futuristic dystopian! You could tell that Dr. Okorafor really put her heart into it. I loved the mythology aspects and the culture that’s seeped into the book.

The message: Dr. Okorafor does a great job handling upsetting topics such as rape, female genital mutilation, colorism, sexism, ethnic genocide, ect. She handled all these topics with such care and although it definitely made it a hard read at times, it was worth it.

What I didn’t like:

Writing: although the themes were definitely adult, the writing could’ve passed for YA. She is definitely a great writer, it’s just not the prose I expected from an adult book containing such a serious premise. Another problem was info-dumping, which there was quite a lot of. Dialogue felt pretty stiff at times as well, but that didn’t bother me much.

Characters: unfortunately, none of the characters really did it for me. I loved Luyu and the Vah People, but that’s basically it. Onye didn’t have much personality other than her anger and magic, Mwita would be my favorite and then the next second say something sexist, and her group of friends were so back and forth. 

The ending: it was so anticlimactic and everything is somehow resolved within the last 4 or so pages. It really made the whole 400 page book feel a bit pointless.

I don’t understand why she let her bio father live….all that build up and for what? It wasn’t even her that injured him, it was Mwita. Mwita’s death felt pointless and avoidable, as did Binta’s.

Although I had a lot of problems with this book, I am happy that I read it.