Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorafor

4 reviews

bessadams's review

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

3.75

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jmanchester0's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow. 
 
Fear is the mindkiller. 
 
Wow. 
 
I’ve loved this phrase ever since I read Dune in high school. 
 
In Dune, Paul repeats this as a mantra. A mantra I adopted to help me get through stressful times. 
 
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain. 
 
From a personal and individual standpoint, fear destroys us. It paralyzes us and keeps us from being who we can be. 
 
But Nnedi Okorafor uses it in a broader context in keeping with the way adrienne maree brown talks about emergence: 

In the framework of emergence, the whole is a mirror of the parts. Existence is fractal—the health of the cell is the health of the species of the planet.
 
So, Paul is using “fear is the mind-killer” to talk about how fear kills our mind on the individual level, but Nnedi mirrors that onto bigger systems and shows how “fear is the mindkiller” can apply to entire cultures. In this case, the pandemic of xenophobia we’re experiencing now. 

I loved this story, and the art was fantastic. 
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readingwithkt's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I REALLY enjoyed this one! I believe it would fall within the afrofuturism genre, and the wider sci-fi genre, but I’m no expert. 
Set in a future world where aliens live among us on Earth, yet are treated as second class citizens, LAGUARDIA interrogates our need to create divisions within society, to fear difference, and to discriminate against others. I found particularly interesting the nods to anti-African policies, something which was perhaps heightened by the news that the UK has enforced a travel ban on mostly African countries very recently. I also found myself learning some about the history of Nigeria, something I’d like to do more research into. While intellectually stimulating, this was also a complete joy to read in places. The bond between parent and child (and my goodness the illustrations of the baby!!), the relationship between Future and LetMeLive (so pure), and the immediate admiration I had for Future’s grandma all had me turning the pages on this graphic novel, intent on finding out how it would conclude. 
I genuinely cannot recommend this enough. A brilliant read!
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