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A review by outcolder
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
5.0
Intergenerational trauma is the worst kind of juju. This book won the Tiptree Award, and like Tiptree's stories, it left me wondering if there is any hope for humanity. Okorafor ends on a much more pleasant note than your typical Tiptree story but that's a low bar for pleasant notes. The main character has some real anger issues and swears she will never regret doling out collective punishments on future generations... refreshing after all the paladins in fantasy and in our heads.
Maybe the only way to really talk about intergenerational trauma is in fantasy literature.
Wonderful to have all the Africanisms and African personalities here, from the constant sucking of teeth to the magical creatures and sorcery... even if this book hadn't been full of genocide, mass rape, child soldiers, and female genital cutting, this would still be a long way from the wizard schools we're used to in epic fantasy. It reminded me that there is a world of African literature out there, not just genre fiction, and I should read more of that.
Harrowing though. It was a relief to finish it.
Maybe the only way to really talk about intergenerational trauma is in fantasy literature.
Wonderful to have all the Africanisms and African personalities here, from the constant sucking of teeth to the magical creatures and sorcery... even if this book hadn't been full of genocide, mass rape, child soldiers, and female genital cutting, this would still be a long way from the wizard schools we're used to in epic fantasy. It reminded me that there is a world of African literature out there, not just genre fiction, and I should read more of that.
Harrowing though. It was a relief to finish it.