"Akata Witch" by Nnedi Okorafor (BR)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

This is our first buddy read selection for June for the Inclusive Book Club Bingo! You do not need to be participating in the challenge to join us in our discussion, all are welcome!

Please use spoiler tags and chapter headings so that everyone can follow along at their own pace and still add to discussion.

[Anna]

I want to start this now! But I have to finish Radch first. This can be my reward.

[Anna]

I started this, I think I've read four chapters. It's more MG than YA, or somewhere in the middle. Feels about the same age as her Zahrah the Windseeker. Fun, magical and light, just what I needed.

Actually, it's kind of Zahrah meets Binti.

[Jordan]

I just got the library audiobook for this today. But I also have Into the Drowning Deep to listen to as well. Guess I'm binging audiobooks this weekend.

[Rachel]

Way. Too. Many books committed too...

[Anna]

Eeeaghhh! I just started chapter 6. Adding brain bleach to my shopping list. Beware if you're very sensitive about animals and/or easily grossed out.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I was going to be surprised if she wrote a book with no trauma!

[Anna]

It's not quite Who Fears Death, but I'm sensitive about things to do with animals. I'm revising my earlier opinion, I don't think this is suitable for MG age kids, although it's possible I'm more of a wuss than they are :D It feels MG otherwise, but some details are more graphic than I'd expect in this type of book. I just read a part with detailed violence against a child. It's almost Binti level graphic, I could do with less.

I'm still liking it though, it's just darker than I expected.

[Anna]

OK I have to go back to what I mentioned in my last message. Spoilers for the start of chapter 9, second page or so, the news article.

(view spoiler)[ A 7yo with his eyes gouged out?! But no sweat, at least he's alive! I know this isn't a middle grade book, but it feels like one, so why is the violence so graphic? (hide spoiler)]

I have no idea what kids can handle, but I'm an adult and I'm sobbing in terror. (A tiny bit of exaggeration.)

[Ariana]

Umm... I think I might skip this one. Stressful violence involving kids and animals is not my bag. (I loved Binti, though, somehow that didn't seem as bad?)

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Anna wrote: "OK I have to go back to what I mentioned in my last message. Spoilers for the start of chapter 9, second page or so, the news article.

[spoilers removed]

I have no idea what kids can handle, but ..."

ooh- thanks for the heads up Anna... I'm suddenly rethinking this...

Is it a whole detailed scene? Or is it mentioned in passing?

[Anna]

It's a short news article about what happened to a child. It's very possible I'm overreacting, most people's reviews say it's MG and would recommend to a 10 year old. I hate reading stuff like this, I absolutely hate movies with stuff like this, so I may be way more sensitive. It's probably also because I was expecting something fun and easy, so it took me completely by surprise. If I'm expecting adult level stuff, I won't be as shocked by it.

If you want to know what it is, my spoiler above is very short, just the fact itself. It won't spoil the plot in any way.

My earlier comment about animals is specifically (view spoiler)[ someone buying an animal head at a butcher and describing how it looks like it died in horror, and then proceeding to scrape it clean (hide spoiler)]. No plot spoilers.

I've read up to chapter 12, those are the two things I've had problems with, otherwise it's fine. There is a third thing I'm wondering about, but I'm hoping it's a childish exaggeration.

Binti wasn't super graphic, but it's adult scifi with a traumatic event, so it's not suitable for children.

Lastly, yes, Okorafor's books sometimes have horrifying scenes, but there's usually a reason for it, and it is dealt with in some way. I'm sure the child violence is going to be dealt with, I'm just not there yet.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Anna wrote: "It's a short news article about what happened to a child. It's very possible I'm overreacting, most people's reviews say it's MG and would recommend to a 10 year old. I hate reading stuff like this..."

This is very helpful- thank you! And no- you're not overreacting! Especially when it comes as a surprise, I know exactly what you mean and I appreciate the heads up.

[Ariana]

Anna wrote: "I hate reading stuff like this, I absolutely hate movies with stuff like this, so I may be way more sensitive. It's probably also because I was expecting something fun and easy, so it took me completely by surprise. If I'm expecting adult level stuff, I won't be as shocked by it."

Yes, thanks for the explanation! I'm exactly the same way, so knowing what to expect makes it a lot easier.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I am sorry that it took a trigger, but it fills my heart with gladness to see people taking care of each other :) Y'all rock. Thanks, Anna, for sharing, knowing stuff like that is coming really does make it so much easier!

[Anna]

I finished. I don't know why I'm so fixated on what age group this would be appropriate for. It's not MG, but parts of it feel very young. I think the start fooled me into expecting something much younger than it ended up being.

I liked parts of it a lot. Some parts not so much. Besides the earlier stuff, I felt very uncomfortable with (view spoiler)[ how the kids talked about their parents and teachers flogging or caning them. Yes that sort of talk is in plenty of kids' books, and it's usually a joking exaggeration, but in this one they were actually caned/flogged. I guess something like Filch threatening to hang kids in chains in the dungeons is easier to laugh off, because the whole world is so different from ours. But abused, mutilated and murdered children hits a little too close to home.

Also, some of the kids smoke?! (hide spoiler)]

As always, I liked her writing, and the Nigerian setting.

I liked Zahrah better, it was magical, whimsical, truly different. The plot in this one was a bit too familiar. Both are too young for my usual tastes, so it's hard to say what a younger reader would think. And I was led to believe this was super amazing, so maybe my expectations were a bit too high.

I hope I haven't ruined it for others!

Despite all the whining, I'm going to continue on to Akata Warrior. I'm hoping it'll be amazing, and I'll be expecting more mature content, since the kids will be older.

[Anna]

I'm halfway through Warrior and liking it much more! Some of the problems I had seem to be fixed, and of course I wasn't expecting MG. There's even a scene with disgusting bugs, and I found them cute! Also lots of spiders, but I don't have a problem with them.

[Jordan]

Okay, finally getting around to starting this today. I'm only on chapter three so far. I'm kind of worried because I've read so many reviews saying this is super similar/derivative of Harry Potter. So I guess I'll see.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

I have this on hold as an ebook- but Libby is telling me it will be 6 weeks. Hopefully it won’t be that long :(.

[Rachel]

Yeah there are 6 ahead of me in the hold line - hope to get it this month

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Well if nothing else hopefully we get it at the same time so we won’t be reading alone!

[Anna]

I also heard the African Harry Potter comments, and I completely understand why. But I would suggest to forget about that, and just take it as Nigerian magic.

I finished Warrior yesterday, and I'm thinking my reading of Witch may have suffered from the minute I hit the first snag. I was ambushed and I should have immediately adjusted my expectations. As I've been thinking about it after I finished, I've concentrated on the things I liked, and I'm thinking of changing my rating to 4. It definitely deserves more than 3 stars.

[Jain]

For the people who've read both: do you think Akata Warrior would make sense to someone who didn't read Akata Witch first? (I'm working my way through Hugo reading and need to read Warrior, which is a finalist in the new YA category, but I bounced off Witch the first time I tried it, and am hoping I can just skip straight to the sequel.)

[Anna]

I don’t think it would be ideal, but you could try. Some of the plot continues from book one, so you’d need to find a plot summary.

[Jordan]

Anna wrote: "I also heard the African Harry Potter comments, and I completely understand why. But I would suggest to forget about that, and just take it as Nigerian magic.

I finished Warrior yesterday, and I'm..."

Yeah, so far I can see what those reviewers are saying, but it's doing just fine standing on its own and not making me constantly draw parallels.

I'm on chapter seven now and so far it's fine. I haven't really been drawn in yet though. I'm hoping things start to pick up some.

[Shomeret]

Jain wrote: "For the people who've read both: do you think Akata Warrior would make sense to someone who didn't read Akata Witch first? (I'm working my way through Hugo reading and need to read Warrior, which i..."

I did that. I read Akata Warrior without having read Akata Witch. I did it because I started Akata Witch and it didn't hold my interest. I thought Akata Warrior might be better. Starting with the second book is definitely feasible. Okorafor brings readers up to speed with background at the beginning of Akata Warrior. It held my interest and I think it is a better book, but it's not in the same league as the books Okorafor has written for adults.

[Jordan]

Hrmmm. Okay, finished this. Not really my favorite. Thoughts below.

(view spoiler)[This book seemed like events just happened so randomly. One moment Sunny is in school and then she's initiated out of kind of nowhere with basically no explanation and then they visit some guy in a forest for some reason? And they're attending Leopard home school or something, I guess. And then they go to some festival and watch a guy get murdered but are fine a few minutes later. And there's a soccer/football game in there. And then someone does stupid magic, but it's fine. And all of a sudden they're being rushed off to fight the big bad who seemed laughable easy to beat so what the hell were all the responsible adults doing all this time? Oh, I forgot, there don't seem to be any responsible Leopard adults.

But three stars from me still because the world building was pretty damn cool. I want more of the world, just with an actual plot and characters that develop throughout. (hide spoiler)]

[Kristin B.]

Jordan wrote: "Hrmmm. Okay, finished this. Not really my favorite. Thoughts below...."

Ditto on literally everything you said. You stole the thoughts directly from my brain. I finished this just now (view spoiler)[and it just never seemed to come together. It was really erratic and a lot of randomness seems to just be thrown in for the hell of it without having an actual point. Why are there random balls of fur and meat and teeth that explode? What was up with the guy that turned into an angel and that was just a thing that happened and nobody explained? How did they go from learning the basics to getting picked up out of the blue and dropped into a scenario that had already apparently killed a bunch of more experienced Leopard people? The pacing was just all over the place.

I felt a lot like Sunny in that I had no idea what was going on and I really wanted someone to take the time and explain it to me.

As much as I was not a huge fan of the plot, I did really like the setting. I also liked that the author brought in a lot of African cultures, even if only mentioned in passing. Unfortunately it's often forgotten that Africa has just as many diverse cultures and people as Europe.

Also, I want a Wasp Artist. I promise to pay it so many compliments. (hide spoiler)]

[Rachel]

finally able to start this - of course I have another group read starting tomorrow ..that I nominated I think...good thing it looks like a fast read.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

I’m still waiting for mine to come in. I wish my library would invest in more ebooks. :(

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

FINALLY starting this... sheesh. Library ebook waits are killing me, but it's going really fast.

I'm pleasantly surprised. Between the content warnings and middle grade feel I wasn't expecting much but I'm enjoying it overall. I love the Nigerian setting and cultural elements. It could also have a lot to do with the fact that I finally finished Death's End and that was really dense.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

I finished (only a month late- haha!). I actually really enjoyed it. My biggest issues were:

(view spoiler)[I agree that the believability of sending kids to face down a level four serial killer was sort of ridiculous. I know the Leopard People view death differently, even kid's deaths, but it just didn't make any sense. You don't send novices to take down an expert.

The resolution.... Sunny says "Return" and the Juju equivalent of Satan just melts?

The pacing did feel sort of random at times, but that was less of an issue for me. I enjoyed the setting and characters so much I didn't care much that we were just watching them do random things.

I loved Sunny's character and her relationship with her mother. I loved the idea that the physical imperfections of the Leopard People were turned into their greatest strengths.

I loved all the little creatures. The ghost hopper sitting on her dad's head, the artist wasp, the books growing legs.

Glad to have read it overall. I will definitely pick up Akata Warrior at some point. (hide spoiler)]