Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Binti

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

11 reviews

vigil's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

2.0

it clearly was trying to do something it really didn’t succeed at. suffers from being a novella for sure. and the prose is a bit bland for my tastes, though the story ideas are interesting. i might read on but not right now.

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amylynn44's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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walkie_check's review

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adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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tinyjude's review

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adventurous fast-paced

3.5

I'm not the biggest fan of medusas or these type of animals but it was interesting nonetheless. Sometimes it was a bit repetitive.

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afion's review against another edition

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3.5

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hanarama's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

CW: racism, death, body horror

The Good:
• Resourceful main character
• Horror into understanding

The Bad:
• Too short
• End is a little too "neat"

You Might Like this if You Like:
• A Memory Called Empire
• Octavia Butler
• Non-humanoid aliens

Binti is the first Himbe to be accepted into a prestigious intergalactic school. Though excited, she is apprehensive about leaving her family. Initially she has some difficulty, but soon starts building relationships with her future classmates.

But then their ship is attacked by the Meduse, a jellyfish-like alien species. Binti and the pilot are the only two left alive following the massacre. As Binti protects herself from the Meduse, she discovers a way to speak to them, and begins to relate to the aliens.

The setting is interesting, but the world building is mainly surface level. The novella is too short for a really in depth exploration of the setting.

The ending also suffers due to length. It feels a bit too neatly tied up and abrupt. It felt as though Okorafor was rushing to finish things up, when the story could have been further developed.

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ejb44's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor centres itself on Himba woman Binti who decides to go against what her village expects of her and go to university. On this journey she faces one of the hardest experiences of her life, one that will follow her through the rest of the series and be a key factor in her trauma-healing and decision making. From themes of identity and culture-mixing to friendship and family struggles, Okorafor doesn’t fail to beautifully explore what it means to be from various cultures.

For such a short book, Okorafor manages to create such a detailed world without compromising character and plot development. This skill is fairly unique, and I think the balance between these three aspects of a novel entangle with each other so well. Every aspect of the science fiction in this novel is capitalised to its maximum, without feeling overbearing like I felt it did in her other novel Lagoon.

Okorafor’s exploration of identity, migration and how others’ perceptions of you can shape those aspects of your life really root this story – it is obvious from the beginning the message she is trying to put across. By placing themes of migration and identity in a post-colonial context and exploring these conversations free from European influence, Okorafor is expanding the limitations faced by black women. These themes permeate the other books in the series and never once become repetitive. The message really hit home for me, as someone who has grown up not really fitting in with any other culture in my family (the perks of growing up with parents from two countries!). Okorafor brings in her own ideas as she is Nigerian but was raised in America, and you can tell from the writing it really is a topic that means a lot to her and is close to her heart.

Overall this book is fantastically brilliant, short, vibrant and deals with important topics in such a short space of words. I would also recommend the book Shame On Me by Tessa McWatt to accompany you’re reading of this series as it deals with the same subjects from a non-fiction point of view.

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jenkneebee's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful tense 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

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mar's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

3.0

this book has great potential and AHH I wish it was full-length novel! the integration of Himba culture with sci-fi was absolutely incredible, and I really liked the aliens in this story, the author did a great job making them feel actually, y'know, alien. still, the plot felt too rushed even for a novella, so the events happen too fast to have any emotional impact, and the worldbuilding was really cool but felt kinda too bare-bones at times, rarely going into as much detail as I wished. considering the thing that bothered me the most was that the world wasn't explored in enough detail, i'll definitely be picking up the other two books, especially since they're both longer, so hopefully won't feel like they're moving too fast. this feels like the sort of trilogy that should be read and judged as a whole.

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babayagaofficial's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I stood there, frozen, hearing my mother’s voice in my head. “There is a reason why our people do not go to that university. Oomza Uni wants you for its own gain, Binti. You go to that school and you become its slave.”

A beautiful novella about connection and cultural integrity in the face of otherness and exploitation. Well worth the read, and I'm looking forward to picking up Home and The Night Masquerade as well.

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