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reviewed Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (The Nsibidi Scripts, #1)

Nnedi Okorafor: Akata Witch (2011, Viking) 4 stars

Twelve-year-old Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back …

Review of 'Akata Witch' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I'd had this book on my wishlist for quite some time. Binti became available at my library before Akata Witch did, and so I read that. After reading Binti, I added all of Okorafor's books to my wishlist. Her writing is engaging, her world-building is wonderful, and her characters are almost real. I found a copy at a used bookstore and onto my Mt. TBR it went.

While the title of the book draws some controversy, I can't speak to it as a white American. However, this is an excellent book and a discussion about people's feelings on the title should be a part of any book discussion.

I would highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys fantasy or urban fantasy. If you like Harry Potter, as a child, adolescent, or adult, you'll probably enjoy this book. It is not a knock-off, the parallels run only so far as the themes and tropes of any YA/children's fantasy/urban fantasy. The book I would liken it to this year is "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" as a similar type of story that readers would enjoy both, although potentially geared to different age groups. I can verify that I am not the target audience for any of these books, but I enjoyed them all the same.

Akata Witch a lovely coming-of-age story about an amazing child who is doing her best in a true bind. (Spoilers: I though it was well done to have Sunny try to tell her mother what was going on, only to have the binding wrap her words in her throat and be unable. This lessened the inevitable child lying to adults theme that occurs in all YA coming-of-age stories.)

I've promised my copy to a reader via Bookcrossing and the USA & Canada Wishlist Tag Game 2019 . Before I finished, I checked out the next book, Akata Warrior. I finished Akata Witch today on the bus and have already started Akata Warrior.