thistle_and_verse's Reviews (299)

I really liked Xiaomara's character and felt bad when Aman or her family let her down. I was very emotionally involved while reading and wasn't annoyed by the romance, which is weird for me when reading YA. The plot was gripping, and I didn't feel like any parts of the book dragged.

The world of the story was meticulously built. Loved Aster. I hadn't read a novel with a POV like hers before, and it felt refreshing and complete. A poignant book, especially when it came to Giselle. I tore through this book. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down. I especially appreciated the parallels between Tarlander life and life for slaves in the US - the threat of sexual assault, the innovation (abortions, food, coded maps, etc.), the oral histories, rebellions, passing. I think there is a lot about slavery I didn't learn about in school (or it was rushed over), that I had to research on my own, that was reflected in this book.

I actually liked Okwu in this book, which is different for me because his aggression usually annoys me. I was moved watching how far Binti was willing to go and what she was willing to sacrifice to bring peace. I was fascinated watching all the transformations that happened to Binti over the course of this trilogy.

I viewed Wakanda as a utopia of sorts - imperfect but trying to be just, so I don't know how I feel about the explanation of Wakanda's origins. Engaging read though that looks at issues of faith. Also glad to see that Storm will be playing a bigger role in the series.

I appreciated the clever ways in which Zoboi modernized the original story, and I think the love interests being younger actually helps a lot. It makes their miscommunications and impulsiveness more believable and maybe forgivable. Bushwick felt like a vibrant setting, and I enjoyed the bits of Haitian and Dominican culture. The ending felt like a cop-out to me. I read the afterword, and it gave me a conflicting view on Zoboi's thoughts on gentrification than what I got from reading the book. I wasn't feeling Darius as a love interest.

I remember people complaining that there weren't enough fight scenes in the last arc. This issue definitely has more. Really liked seeing Storm and the Midnight Angels

I picked up this book because I didn't know much about Boko Haram and thought a narrative would be a good starting point. I definitely learned a lot and appreciated the extra information in the back on the history, the process of the book being made, and extra resources/ relief efforts. Felt like a teaching tool with a every-person type main character, but that's a stylistic choice. The way the book is broken up makes it easy to understand/ read (if the heavy subject matter doesn't make you pause).

A thought-provoking book about bad memories, their impact on our lives, and personhood. I thought the scifi element was the strongest. I didn't get into the romance aspects of the book. I really loved the scenes towards the end where Elsie the mem meets her creator/ source Dolores and sees how Dolores has been living since her extraction. I really enjoyed Elsie's and Dolores' relationship. A major hole in the plot for me was the novel being set in 1920s Canada with a Black protagonist and racism or Elsie's/Dolores' culture not coming up. Morrow explained her reasoning at the end, but that was something I would have wanted to know much earlier so I wasn't distracted while reading. It seemed odd to me because it seemed like the alternate history of the world she created could be explained in 2 paragraphs and incorporated into the book instead of being an afterword.

Familiar concepts and characters. Felt Maggie's struggling relatable. Some predictable reveals. We learn what one of the character's abilities is, and it's played as a big betrayal, but I was massively confused because I had guessed his ability as soon as he was introduced and thought everyone knew. Fun enough read

I read this thinking it would contain a story arc similar to A Nation Under Our Feet, but it's more like a collection of shorts. I liked Okorafor's stories the best. The one about Ngozi was where Wakanda and the Black Panther universe seemed most peripheral, but I think it was the story I enjoyed most. The other one about the power outages in Wakanda was good, but I felt like I was missing a lot of information and was more put off by that than in Ngozi's story because the power outages story had several comics to complete the story arc.