Book Details
- Date Read: January 14, 2022
- Publication Date: July 11, 2017
- Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
- Format: Audio Book
- Page Count: 349
- Listening Time: 8 hours 49 minutes
- Print Publisher: Viking Penguin
- Audio Publisher: Tantor Media
Akata Witch (The Nsibidi Scripts #1) Book Review
Nnedi Okorafor initially caught my reader heart with her novel Remote Control and her brilliant way of weaving fantasy and magic into everyday life. Akata Witch, the first in the Nsibidi Scripts series, highlighted Nnedi’s work in Africanjujuism, a sub-genre she coined. The story follows Sunny Nwaze, NYC born and living in Nigeria, as she discovers her latent magical power. She learns how to use it, creates a friend circle with magical powers, joins with them to defeat a criminal magician, and learns her ancestral history along the way.
I opted for the audio book version and the narrator, Yetide Badaki, did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life. The story caught my attention early and held it throughout the book. It was well-paced and wove magical realism in effortlessly. The world surrounding magic was not separated from the people with magical powers, though there were oaths of who knew what and elements of mystery as young adults navigated their new powers. As soon as I finished the book I placed a hold for the next in the series.
This felt true to its classification of Young Adult Fiction and sometimes it left me wanting more from the characters, but that happens when I read YA and I knew it was a possibility going in. I imagine if I was a younger reader, I would have fallen hard for this book.
Overall, Nnedi Okorafor continues to be one of my favorite authors and I’m eager to read more in this series.
