Title: Akata Witch
Series: Akata Witch #1
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Genre: Fantasy
Trigger Warnings: Bullying (verbal), bullying (physical)
Read to: ~45 minutes in (read via audiobook)
Back Cover:
Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?
Review:
I picked this up because of the author – I adored Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy and I wanted to read more from her. I did not realize going in that Akata Witch is a middle grade book. It’s not bad, by any stretch of the imagination. I just started to outgrow middle grade books back in 2014, and that hasn’t changed.
This book is also very slow. A lot of the beginning focuses on Sunny’s struggles to fit in as an American-born albino in Nigeria and how much bullying she experiences, and the friendships she built with Orlu and Chichi were glossed over. By the time I stopped reading Sasha hadn’t shown up at all and the magic stuff was just starting to be hinted at.
That’s not to say slow books are bad – I just generally prefer books with a faster pace, and that’s no fault of Akata Witch. I hadn’t really intended to give up on this book so early, but between it being middle grade and slow-paced, both of which are not my cup of tea, I put it down and realized three weeks later that I had no desire to go back to it. It’s not a bad book at all, and I’m sure there are many people who will (and do) love it, but it’s just not for me.
The Akata Witch series:
- Akata Witch
- Akata Warrior
Bluejay Reads 