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A review by hiaj
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
2.0
Nnedi’s writing colors this world beautifully, navigating the blended worlds of nature, capitalism, colonialism, and technology at the cost of age and heritage.
However Noor holds more nuance in its lush descriptions of food than world and plot building. What’s intended to feel like an unfurling plot twists that should shock and reveal, feels more like a mad scramble of plot points made up on the spot even to the last page—like a grade school narrative assignment where a series of “and then and thens” unfold random event after random event until at last the book is over. The ending is not the “wow” it seems to want to give.
Living inside AO’s mind as she’s experiencing her body and its changes were very vivid and unique. Especially the healing. But understanding what made her who she is isn’t clear to me. Nothing is explained.
It would have been very useful to have more vivid descriptions of groups like the Fulani herdsman. They are plainly depicted as steer herdsman. I would have loved to understand the culture them to understand how much they’ve lost.
There’s so many mentions of the sun and not enough of why that matters. Not even conceptually. Like yes it’s used for power (figurative and literal) but like….how does this matter. I could dig but if the author didn’t, why should I?
Also all of this happens in a week??
However Noor holds more nuance in its lush descriptions of food than world and plot building. What’s intended to feel like an unfurling plot twists that should shock and reveal, feels more like a mad scramble of plot points made up on the spot even to the last page—like a grade school narrative assignment where a series of “and then and thens” unfold random event after random event until at last the book is over. The ending is not the “wow” it seems to want to give.
Living inside AO’s mind as she’s experiencing her body and its changes were very vivid and unique. Especially the healing. But understanding what made her who she is isn’t clear to me. Nothing is explained.
It would have been very useful to have more vivid descriptions of groups like the Fulani herdsman. They are plainly depicted as steer herdsman. I would have loved to understand the culture them to understand how much they’ve lost.
There’s so many mentions of the sun and not enough of why that matters. Not even conceptually. Like yes it’s used for power (figurative and literal) but like….how does this matter. I could dig but if the author didn’t, why should I?
Also all of this happens in a week??