Book #57: Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor

[grav_ity]

This book is, theoretically, YA, but also has amazing potential to crossover into MG. I feel like she knew she was going to write kids as they grew, and took the opposite approach that Riordan and Rowling did (ie started with them in the upper age bracket). It works well.

ANYWAY, the most basic pitch is "Nigerian Harry Potter", but it's SO much more developed than that. Okorafor's world is brilliant and terrifying, and Sunny's magical world is MUCH closer to the real one than Harry's is. I absolutely loved it.

Penguin is publishing a book 2 (Akata Warrior) in a couple of weeks, and I am really pumped about it.

Comments

[falena]

I'm so excited about book#2!

I absolutely loved Akata Witch.

[conuly]

I just wish she hadn't gone with the disability-erasing trope for the MC's albinism. I mean, yes, she still has the social stigma, but the physical effects are gone. Like with Daredevil, her magic power is not being disabled.

[grav_ity]

I did wonder about that, tbh, but since it's written by a Nigerian author, I was way more...okay with it? It was pubbed in 2009, and we're in a different place now, so I am VERY CURIOUS about how she'll move forward with it.