I had high hopes for Binti, but I didn’t know quite what to expect. As usual, I read very little about the plot of this book before purchasing it. I had a vague idea that the protagonist was an African woman going to space, but that was it.

I really liked it, but it wasn’t as grasping as I was expecting. It took me two days to read it, which it shouldn’t because the story is really short. I really liked the protagonist - Binti is a young girl who knows what she wants, and the fact that what she wants is to study and learn and go to school is fucking amazing. I really miss protagonists driven by a thirst of knowledge. They’re refreshing and so good to come by, I feel so proud in recommending books like these, especially to young people, and especially to young girls.

So reading about Binti’s excruciating need to go to this outer space college and learn and study was really good. The aspects to the story, her roots and traditions of her people, mingled with what felt like the intro part of a space opera, was really nice. However, the pace of the story didn’t catch me, so that’s why I’m giving it 3 stars.

However, having a character not coming from your typical western culture is fucking refreshing, especially because the classic sci-fi stories tend to present us a world that is pretty devoided of anything other than The American Way™ or something very close to it.

Spoiler alert ahead!

Binti’s “transformation” was a little concerning to me, specially because it was non-concensual from her part. But the representation of it - her permanent connection with the Meduse and their language, the physical evidence that she is no ordinary Himba girl from planet Earth, is pretty strong (also a pretty dope image).

I know there are sequels to Binti’s story, and I will definitely look for them, hoping they’ll be more well paced than the first.