Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Night Masquerade

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The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

10 reviews

avacadosocks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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miniingrid's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Relectura de la trilogía de Binti acabada. Esta vez en catalán, y seguida (todo lo seguida que se puede hacer con poco tiempo para leer en papel).
Me he vuelto a emocionar, he visto la historia con una perspectiva ligeramente diferente y la he vuelto a disfrutar probablemente más que la primera vez. Los cambios son parte de la vida, y a veces solo nos falta verlos con la perspectiva y la compañía adecuada, y en el momento preciso para saber apreciarlos.

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ellornaslibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Oh. . . wow. I don't know what other words to use for this book. No, for this conclusion to the trilogy. It was phenomenal. If I had thought the last book went places? Well, I was wholly unprepared for this one. The storytelling was beautiful and evocative and powerful and. . .

Just left me feeling such a variety of emotions as I concluded this journey alongside Binti. I laughed, I cried, I raged, I celebrated alongside her and Okwu. And then there's Mwinyi who. . . I have no words. I don't often get into the whole book boyfriend thing some readers do, but he's definitely a character who makes me understand why they do.

Once again, the narration for this was top notch. I am always left reeling by how much more powerful the emotions are in this series cause of the talented Robin Miles. I definitely have to check out more of their work. These books deal with some difficult, deep emotions given all of what Binti goes through yet the delivery is always excellent. Quality work.

All I can say now is that I am excited beyond words for this series to be adapted and hope, hope, hope Hulu does the adaptation the justice it deserves and more. And that, of course, I will definitely be checking out more work by Nnedi Okorafor who I think might now be an auto-buy author for me.

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queenkath32's review

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

A pretty good conclusion to the series, although I felt like I called the twists about

the deaths of Binti's family not being real, as well as her own death not being permanent

from a mile away. Not bad, necessarily, but then it just didn't feel very high stakes. That being said, while I usually find the final book in a series to be unsatisfying, The Night Masquerade offered me a satisfying conclusion to this trilogy, so I still say that I liked it.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

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writingcaia's review

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adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

A really interesting series, very imaginative, very poignant and entertaining.
An original futuristic sci-fi tale of an African tribe girl who wishes to escape Earth and her family trap and study in the outer space university.
Binti escapes during night cover and boards the ship that will change her destiny forever. The only survivor of an attack on the ship by the aliens Meduse she will suffer the trauma but also the strange connection to her aggressors, who she gets to know in order to survive, especially to Okwu, with whom she shares her unique kind of magic and power. Undoubtedly changed physically and mentally Binti will face many challenges and ordeals to change the way the cosmos sees the aggressive and aggrieved Meduse, and to change the racism her people on Earth still suffer.
Liked the first book, but enjoyed the second more although I missed Okwu’s participation in it, the last was my favourite and overall the series was a solid 4⭐️.

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jmcordero's review

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adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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charity1313's review

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.5

The world-building and character development remain strong and bring along a better plot line. In hindsight this one is getting better in my memory. Definitely one of those novellas that kept me turning pages, though this sequel felt less sci-fi space odyssey and more sci-fi magical realism. I like both though so the switch didn't bother me. An interesting exploration of PTSD from a non-traditional format. Again with the intriguing use of math.

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abutler's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

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bluejayreads's review

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Before I get into talking about this book specifically, I want to talk about the Binti Trilogy as a whole. Because this series has the best thematic arc I have ever seen in a series. Binti is about Binti's identity as part of the Himba people. Her connection to her people is the only reason she survived that book. Binti: Home is about Binti returning to her homeland and struggling as she realizes she is now both Himba and Other. And now Binti: The Night Masquerade is about Binti taking the many, many diverse parts of herself and integrating them into one harmonious whole that is Binti - not Himba and Other, but Himba and More.

The first two books were fantastic but this one was just so emotionally resonant. I can't even put my finger on exactly what it is but while I adored the first two Binti books, I felt this one.

Binti is struggling in this one. People close to her have died, war is about to break out, and on top of it all she knows she is still Himba but the Himba seem to have rejected her and circumstances keep conspiring to make her feel like she has lost her identity. She feels lost and adrift and at the same time responsible for so many bad things that have happened, but through it all she never stopped fighting. I loved her as a character in the other books, but in this one I loved her as a person.

I feel like I should mention Mwinyi, but he wasn't important. He was there, and part of a barely-there romance that felt a little forced, but he (and the other characters, like Okwu) were important to the plot but not to the heart of the story. The emotional journey in this book belongs to Binti and Binti alone, and her vibrant character made everyone else recede into the background.

Normally I say a lot more about the plot. There was a plot, and honestly a pretty good one - stop the war brewing between the Koush and the Meduse. But somehow the fate of Binti's homeland (pretty much guaranteed to be destroyed in the crossfire if war breaks out) pales in comparison to Binti's emotional arc. There is a plot, which is very good and legitimately surprised me with how it ended, but Binti: The Night Masquerade is about character, not plot.

My only criticism of the story was that the ending seemed a little anticlimactic. I didn't hate it, though - Binti herself pointed it out, making it seem a little bit self-aware - and the ending made me think about how ordinary life keeps going on after the interesting plot of the story ends. It's not what you expect from a story, especially one as full of drama and science-magic as this one, but it was different and I think I liked it.

And as a fun little side note: I have no idea if Nnedi Okorafor intended this at all, but I discovered while studying Arabic that in Arabic, "binti" translates to "my daughter." Considering how much of this trilogy is about family and Binti's place as a "daughter" of the Himba, I thought that was really cool.

The entire Binti trilogy is amazing, and I absolutely loved the first two books, but this one outshone them both. It's rare that the last book is the best in a series, but I think this one is. I do not have enough good things to say about Binti.

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