Review: Akata Witch

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Title & Authors: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Genre: Fantasy, Magic, African Folk Lore, Ya

Series: Akata Witch #1

Release Date: April 14, 2011

Publisher: Viking Children’s

Source: Loan

Descriptions:

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?

 

COVER

PLOT

CHARACTERS

ROMANCE

WRITING

WORLD

 

Favorite lines:

“It may have been through your grandmother or she may have just been crazy, who knows…”–Anatov

“I’d smash the thing,” Sasha said. “My sister had one when she was small, and when she forgot to give it praise once, it got pissed and stung her. Its sting paralyzes you for ten minutes so you can do nothing but watch it build its ‘final masterpiece’ and then keep watching as it dramatically dies. The damn things are psychotic.”–Sasha, in reference to the wasp artist.

 

 

Reasons why I loved Akata witch:

I absolutely love Nnedi Okorafor, I read Binti by her, it’s great too! But this is about Akata Witch. My favorite thing to do sometimes is pick up a book without reading much about the plot but discovering it as i read it. And this was such a fun read, its steeped in myth and magic of Nigeria on top of that there’s a serial killer running around!

Black Hat Otokoto is the bad guy and what a bad guy he is, I mean maiming kids and those that survived usually have bazaar stories to tell. Black Hat Otokoto was that something in the background of the story that kept me reading because I wanted to see this sucker brought to justice! (No spoilers here)

Sunny is the main character in this story and I’ve read a lot of story along this line, of the world against me. Yet, Sunny is strong and doesn’t cry much in the face of danger,  there are some scary and sticky situation she and her friends find themselves in. Still, Sunny has that drive to move forward and not lingering in the what happen but whats happening.

Chichi is a great example of a good kids with good intentions, that come off as being confrontational or disruptive. Anatov made a very good point, about Chichi character how she would have been a horrible student; talking back, rudeness, disrupting the classroom etc. Something that might occur in any school, yet the answer behind it is these are usually good kids that express themselves differently. And through that knowledge we can hopefully show some empathy for those kids thanks to Chichi characters personality.

I love this book, I might have gotten more out of it than it was intended for fantasy young adult but that is why I enjoy reading. Akata Witch made me enjoy a new brand of mythology.

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves to read! 🙂

 

Overall stars:  4.5