I can't decide if this was a 3 or 4 star book for me. There are things I really liked about it, but also things I didn't.

Really liked:
- interesting post-apocalyptic Africa setting, which is never really explained. But there are ipods and stashes of old computers in caves and advanced technology, BUT, also magic is a thing and there's a legend about how the goddess struck down and cursed humans for their hubris in creating all the technology. I'd definitely be interested in reading more about what happened to create this world (and I see there's a prequel novel that may cover some of this).
- super strong female characters who persist despite incredible hardship
- very unusual and interesting world and magic systems

Things I didn't like:
- there's a lot of very graphic violence against women as essential plot points - the protagonist is born as a result of an extremely violent rape, there's an ongoing genocide against the protagonist's people (the Okeke) which involves regular ritual rape of the captured women to create mixed race "Ewu" children, there's female genital mutilation rituals the play a key role in establishing the protagonist's social circle, and it's literally written in the holy book that the Okeke race are destined to be slaves of the Nuru. So yeah, a lot of unpleasant and very hard to read things, which can sometimes be necessary as plot points but that doesn't mean I enjoy reading them, and I'm not really convinced they were all necessary.
- the overall plot was a bit cliche'd - young child coming-of-age discovering herself in possession of inexplicably powerful yet untrained magical powers and heading off to save the world according to prophecy - I mean, how many times has that been done already? It was a different setting than usual, but the same old elements were all there.
- several of the characters really weren't that likeable, to be quite honest. The dynamics between the protagonist Onyesonwu and her boyfriend and friends often seemed strained or even nonsensical. She seems to be "destined" be with him just because they're both half-breeds, despite the fact most of the time he's kind of a jerk to her and is constantly hiding information. Her other friends are often selfish and unsupportive and squabble between each other a lot, which is just annoying. And her mother, although initially portrayed as loving, also seems to have basically manipulated her daughter's existence and purpose for her entire life to achieve her own goals of revenge. So yeah, while the characters also had some likeable points, I didn't really embrace them entirely either, and that always makes me struggle a bit to really love a book.

Overall I enjoyed it, and will likely pick up the prequel also, but I don't think I'd recommend it without a few warnings, and it definitely would be a difficult read for teenage readers despite the fact the protagonist is a teen herself.