I'm reading AKATA WITCH right now and it is fantastic, so obvs that meant that I when I realized I had BINTI on my Kindle as well, I gave it a quick look-see to see if I wanted to dive right in after I finish AKATA. Sadly, I don't think this book is for me. Lest you say, "Well, you're not a sci-fi reader," you would be totes wrong. When I'm not reading bodice-rippers, I read a lot of sci-fi, and I grew up on both of the big "Star" franchises as a kid. And actually, one of the things I admired about this book was the integration of the pseduo-African culture of the heroine into this world and how it uses this to call out racism against Black people (hair politics, assuming poverty and lack of intelligence, colonizer mentality, etc.). I just think it's too small of a vehicle to do what it wants to do. AKATA is a full-length book (albeit a short one) and everything flows beautifully. In this book, the pacing is off and we're kind of just thrown into the world-building. I think Okorafor is an incredibly talented and imaginative writer, but this is not really her best work (in my opinion).
2 out of 5 stars
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