A review by bioniclib
Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

3.0

This book dares do what is surprisingly rare in Sci-Fi books, feature an abundance of non-humanoid aliens. It also dunks you right into the world with little to no explanation of objects, people, places, y’know nouns, that are unfamiliar to the reader. Being a white boy I’m not sure which is unfamiliar because she made it up and which is unfamiliar because it’s African. It also does something else rare in the genre, features a female protagonist.

Also, also, she’s makes a bit of social commentary, which IS common in the genre. Transitioning from one sex to another is called aligning to Binti’s Tribe. (65) I thought that was fantastically put! One last note on things in the story, Didn’t a mythical creature called a Masquerade appear in Akata Witch? The myth must be an actual African one.

Maybe it’s because I’m out of practice reading unfamiliar worlds but I didn’t connect as firmly as I expected to with it. That’s not to say it wasn’t a masterfully written book with wonderfully enjoyable characters and situations because it had both. The book was easy to get into and hard to put down. But I didn’t like it as much as Akata Witch.

I’ll end with a couple of quotes:

“Just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with.” (9)

“...one of those people who found motion so easy that she couldn’t resist moving all the time.” (110)