Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. 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?
3.5 STARS
I have heard a lot of Nnedi Okorafor and her amazing writing and fantasy worlds for a while now and I am so excited that I finally picked up one of her books. I realized while doing my blog for Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set In Another Country that I don't read enough books not set in either North America or Europe! I need to read more books that are set in other places! It's so easy to get caught up in my ever growing TBR and new releases but I would love to branch out when I can.
Our main group of characters were a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Sunny as a character because she was so sweet and I was rooting for her to not only become a skilled witch but to also grow as a character. She is shy and a bit timid at first. Being albino she stands out and she's self conscious about it. I loved Sunny's strength. However, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha, the other three witches that become her friends, fell a bit flat for me. They were constantly bickering and I never felt a real camaraderie with them. Which I feel like severed any connection I could have had with them. I couldn't bring myself to care enough about them. I would have liked to get to know the mentors more also. I think there is so much that happens in the plot that we don't get a chance to really slow down and build the world and characters more. I honestly wouldn't have minded if this book was a couple hundred pages more because I think it could have built the world and characters but also helped strengthen the plot about Sunny's ancestry and how it's connected to the Black Hat, a serial killer that is abducting and mutilating children.
The plot had both pros and cons. I loved the unique fantasy world Okorafor created and I cannot wait to read the next book because I am already missing the magical world and I want to know more about the magic system. I don't feel like we got to know enough about how the magic works. The juju knives in particular. I love that their abilities are based off of their "imperfections" that society may find as abnormal or look down on. I definitely would have loved to know more about all four main character's abilities, but Sunny's in particular. In this book we are experiencing everything as a new comer, just like Sunny. So there's two plots going on, Sunny learning about this world and trying to train while also keep up with her friends who were trained at an earlier age, and we have a serial killer that is tied up with this magical world. I feel like the big battle we have with the serial killer wasn't built up enough and it kind of felt anticlimactic to me. Also, there are a lot of parallels to Harry Potter in Akata Witch. I didn't mind it so much because I feel like it was different enough that it was fine but I definitely caught a lot of the similarities.
The writing and story telling were great. I already have plans on not only reading the next book in this series, Akata Warrior, but I also already have another one of Nnedi Okorafor's books Binti in my library pile waiting for me to read. Although I did have issues with Akata Witch when it came to some of the lack of getting to know the characters and some issues with the plot I enjoyed it a lot more than I can express. I think that is a result of the writing and how intriguing the world is to me. I also loved the way Nigeria is described and written about. It often felt like I was there with Sunny and her friends. I craved the foods that were being described, I felt the warmth of the sun, and I loved the descriptions of the clothes that were worn.
Overall, if you're in the mood for a fantasy story I do recommend Akata Witch! I think there is so much potential in this story and I am excited to pick up the second book in this series soon. I am hoping in the series we get more world building, we get to know our characters more, and we get to see how the magic system really works.
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