Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Night Masquerade

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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