Akata Warrior

, #2

477 pages

English language

Published April 3, 2017 by Viking.

ISBN:
978-0-670-78561-2
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4 stars (1 review)

A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book.

1 edition

reviewed Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor (The Nsibidi Scripts, #2)

heroic teens eat delicious food, save world

4 stars

Okorafor constructs a very thought provoking story about identity and insider-vs-outsider without being preachy. There are many different kinds of identity in the book: magical leopard vs non-magical lamb, albino vs "normal", african vs. african-american, Igbo vs. Yoruba. It would be easy to take the albino girl as a metaphor about race, and I think that's true, but it's more subtle and rich than that.

The description of the food made me hungry, and overall the setting of modern Nigeria felt very real. Not without its problems, but a place that one could identify as home with real affection.

The characters also felt real in the sense that they were not just board markers for the fantasy plot but had internal lives.

Subjects

  • Magic
  • Albinos and albinism
  • Blacks
  • Paranormal fiction
  • Secret societies
  • Fiction

Places

  • Nigeria