Reviews

genuinely loved this book! honestly the characters were endearing and actually believable, by the end I was hard-core routing for Cameron, Zion and Aliyah. absolutely brilliant book, I loved everything about it. Will definitely be continuing with the series once the second book comes out!literally about to pre-order it now haha

louly's review against another edition

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3.0

NOTE: You can still view the review on goodreads but since the website doesn't support some non-English text, I'd recommend reading the review on this google doc for a better viewing experience.

2.5 stars. ⭐️⭐️✨

The book was alright. The plot itself was pretty basic, in which the main protagonist is revealed to be “the chosen one” and has to go on a bunch of quests along with two friends of which a trio is formed. I didn’t gain much attachment to any of the main characters, they were a bit too 1-dimensional for my taste. It was obvious the bond they shared though, and they’re very clearly friends with the way they talk, argue, and make fun of each other. The protagonist's thoughts also got tiring pretty quickly. There wasn't much fleshing of his personality and character apart from his feeling of being inadequate to be the chosen one.

I enjoyed reading about the journey of a family through generations, the slave trade to the modern period in the Americas and elsewhere. I liked that though the main character was an orphan, he was constantly surrounded by people who clearly loved him and put his best interests at heart. Especially adult ones because they’re often disregarded in MG fantasies like this one.

I did not appreciate the reiteration of a secret African country hidden from the world that is in actuality a hodgepodge of African cultures à la Black Panther. Especially because the Chidani world itself seems like a whole new thing, or more specifically a mismatch of African cultures and ethnic groups, instead of an understandable progression of Igbo peoples' cultures, regions, and history from past to future in secret, aided by magic. It also brings up the question of how the concealment of the Igbo people during the slave trade affected history because the “Nigeria” in this book is portrayed exactly as it is in real life, with no changes to the map, colonization, or history.

I especially had a hard time believing this was really a pre-colonial Igbo kingdom hidden from the world before colonization. A lot of things popped up like rice, harps, flutes, oak, pineapple, plantains, mango, cucumbers, gravy, beans, spoons, plums peaches, sugar, bread, and cinnamon, that aren’t native to West Africa and are very much imported by way of trading during and after slavery and colonization. For these things to exist to Chidani, they’d have to have opened the barrier multiple times and made their presence known to trade which, in text, never happened and is very much the worst scenario to ever happen to Chidani and its people.

The world Chidani itself is more reminiscent of medieval European countries than of pre-colonial Igboland. Things like turrets, towers, chimneys, settees, cobblestones, bread, swords, armor, et cetera are mentioned; they're very much part of European culture and architecture. Take the case of the armor to a lesser extent though as they aren’t really described so I don’t know if they appear as European armor does or as Igbo armors do, though, with the way the author was so vague about it, I suspect it’s the former. There was also other stuff like how the royalty constantly had crowns studded with jewels (i.e. diamonds, rubies, emeralds, etc) which doesn’t really give me Igbo imagery of “royalty.”

Books and written scripts themselves aren’t native to most of pre-colonial West Africa and that includes the Igbo region so the whole story being centered on the existence of a magical Igbo one during the slave trade is… odd. Because how did the enslaved peoples from pre-colonial Igboland understand the written script of their language when it would only be formed after colonization and perhaps more aptly: because of colonization. They had Nsibidi but that was more ideograms, not “a full writing system because it couldn't transcribe the Igbo language specifically” (Wiki). Standard orthography would only later be made for the language with Latin script in the 1850s progressing and changing over the years. Not to mention that having a form of written script is one thing, creating and having paper to write on is another — and paper is something that’s very much an import to most of West Africa including the Igbo region — and the Chidani kingdom is stated to have “many libraries”' with books in them so how exactly did they get them? Or progressed to have them? The author doesn’t exactly elaborate on the different history of his magical Africa.

Another way the worldbuilding reminded me of medieval Europe was through the feudal class system employed in Chidani. I particularly disliked how the author turned one of the few ethnic groups in West Africa with a notable non-feudal system with no royal class or monarchs into exactly that. The majority of pre-colonial Igbo peoples often had a quasi-democratic republican system of government which was usually governed and administered by a council of elders. There were notable exceptions within the ethnicity, nonetheless, it’s completely disregarded in the worldbuilding of CBATHK in which there’s an explicit royal class with nobles beneath them, and servants most likely made up of the poorer peasant class. The nobles, I noted, were also the only ones allowed to frequent the in-universe library of Chidani apart from the main characters. There are also chiefs in the world of the book, and while in real life there are Igbo chiefs too, I’m more inclined to believe that in the world of Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms, chiefs are the landowning noble class the same way Lords made up the landowning noble class of medieval Europe.

Most of the names of the people from Chidani don’t seem Igbo at all apart from the names of the gods taken directly from Igbo mythology. The names Ramala, Amina, Makai, Halifa, Bakari, Damisi, Dabir, Amir, and Moro don’t sound Igbo at all — except for Chake which I’m not sure of because I’m not Igbo and I don’t speak the language. The only Igbo places mentioned in the book are Asaba, Owerri, and Onitsha, and that’s a pity. I really anticipated learning more about the Igbo peoples and regions when I first heard of this book. The worldbuilding also features a lot of creatures that are clearly non-African inspired: gryphons (undeniably based on European griffins), Aziza (which are actually of African origin but are explicitly described as fairies and called Fae in text), and Mondao (who are reminiscent of mermaids with green skin and fish tails; I did some googling and all I got were that they could be mermaids of African origin but I’m not sure so I’m leaving it at that).

I also did not appreciate how a lot of non-Igbo cultural things were co-opted under an Igbo identity. Dambe for one is a Hausa fighting style, but in the text, it’s explicitly stated that it’s of Igbo origin. The only attires described apart from sandals and the word “kaftan,” are of Yoruba origins too — ṣọ̀kọ̀tọ̀ (shokoto), àgbàdà (agbada), ìrọ̀ (iro), dànṣìkì (dashiki). The wood of the tree “ìrọ̀kọ̀” and a place named Ọ̀kẹ̀nìyì (Okeniyi) are mentioned and those are Yoruba too. Djembe drums are of Mandinka origin but in the text it’s not made clear, therefore unconsciously characterizing it of Igbo origins. The Aziza creatures that are described as looking like “fairies” in the text are in actuality a “type of beneficent supernatural race in West African (specifically, Dahomey) mythology” according to Wikipedia. The Mondao water creatures in this book are apparently of Zimbabwean heritage. None of this information is made explicit in the text and that’s disappointing. This is all made worse by the fact that the Efik and Ibibio peoples are subsumed under an Igbo identity in the book. Ironically, one of the villains of CBATHK is an Igbo supremacist who wants to commit genocide against non-Igbo people and rule over the remaining Igbo people. That the author co-opts non-Igbo cultural identities under an Igbo one in his book without acknowledgment while having such a villain in their book would be laughable if it wasn’t already so irritating.

Speaking of villains, the gods in CBATHK are directly stated to be ones of Igbo mythology and the way they’re written is… odd. They’re selfish, greedy, and almost always obstacles in the main characters’ quest. The two notable ones are Agwu and Ekwensu who are almost grotesque in their evilness. Even Agbala, the one notable exception, doesn't seem to care that she’s essentially sending children to their possible death, and cares more that the “gifts” are retrieved and returned. These deities are explicitly called “gods” in the book, and to my knowledge that’s not the role they fill in real-life Igbo mythology. This is in which they’re “arusi” with specific purposes like the ọ̀rìṣà have in traditional Yoruba religion, here on Earth to be guardians to humans. So to see them so detached and deeming themselves superior to human beings was surprising. They’re more reminiscent of Greek gods who do whatever they want, anyhow they want, and don’t really care about humans unless in ways they can benefit from them than they are reminiscent of traditional Igbo deities.

I’ve talked at length in my review of Skin of the Sea about how the portrayal of Ẹ̀ṣù veered very closely to colonial interpretations of the divinity being equivalent to Satan/the Devil perhaps unconsciously for storytelling. In Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms, this same oversight can be seen in the portrayal of Ekwensu. During the colonization of West Africa, European Christians would try to influence and colonize native peoples by replacing native religions and spirituality with Christian ones. One of the ways this was done was by linking native deities, often morally complicated ones, Europeans deemed evil to the Christian Satan. This was done with the Yoruba divinity Ẹ̀ṣù and it was done to the Igbo deity Ekwensu as well, and they’re probably not the only ones. By doing this, the European Christians could enforce their own binary beliefs of good and evil, God and Satan, demons and angels onto native Africans. That the Ekwensu in Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms holds the role of Satan-like big-bad who lives in the underworld and wants to unleash evil onto the world is disappointing. It’s also quite possibly damaging to the modern day, in real-life efforts to revert the damages that European colonization and enforcement of Christianity have done to native African mythologies and religions like the Igbo one.

Sidenote, but Ekwensu also occupies the role of “god of death” in CBATHK when in real-life Igbo mythology, he’s the deity of bargains and trade, and the role of death deity goes to Ogbunabali. Don’t quote me though, I’m getting this info from Wikipedia.

In conclusion, while the main characters and plot were alright, I had a hard time believing that Chidani was really the historical progression of the Igbo region. And while the book didn't deliver on its Igbo-inspired premise, it encouraged me to research stuff and now I’m more interested in learning what the real-life Igbo culture and history are like in reality. I want to note that people reading this review should not hesitate on reading this book or recommending it to others. I read this book from a more critical perspective and I’m definitely not the target demographic. I do not doubt that this book would be a joy to the children who need it — Black, queer ones who already have so little representation in middle-grade literature. I would definitely recommend Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms for reading.

yanareadit's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

faiifae's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

howdyhoward's review against another edition

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3.0

This was fun! The villain/conflict was a little 2 dimensional but hey it's a kids book. The ending leaves a lot of potential for character growth in the main character.

purdytrue's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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