I liked this, but I think the format does it a disservice, and that's really the only reason I didn't give it a better rating. The story starts getting warmed up, and then it's over. It's clear that Okorafor is intending to tell a longer narrative with Binti, evidenced by it being the first in a series, and splitting it up into three novellas strikes me as "cashing it in." That sounds a little harsh, and I don't actually believe that the author has cash flow in mind with the decision to split this up into three parts. That said, the narrative suffers from the division. Yes, Binti as a novella tells a complete story, but it's complete in the way that one episode of television is complete. Binti herself is a character that I came to really like, and she is wildly different from most of what exists in speculative fiction. To cut her off in mid-sentence disrespects her story in a way that makes a reader less likely to continue with book two.

I may be off with all of this, and maybe there is a new wave of serial novellas coming our way. I have no interest in such a wave because I like books with some meat on their bones. All the said, I'm going to read book two of this because the writing is damn good and I'm engaged with the world. I just wish it was all one novel of three parts.