"Who Fears Death" by Nnedi Okorafor (BR)

[Kaa]

Sorry, totally forgot about this one! Who's still in for Who Fears Death? As a reminder, this will work for the "title is a question" prompt in the TBR challenge.

Please use spoiler tags and indicate chapter/percent.

Content warnings (stolen from Allison's review): (view spoiler)[Rape, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, adultery, graphic violence and war, serial rapists, and spiders. (hide spoiler)]

[Gabi]

Thanks for the heads up, Kaa. I'll start as soon as I've finished Olondria. As preparation I've read The Book of Phoenix some weeks ago, so I'm very curious about Who Fears Death.

[Kaa]

I need to finish up a couple books first, too. It'll be a day or two before I can start this. I haven't gotten Phoenix from the library yet, so I'll be reading it later.

[Dawn F]

I’m in too, but also need to finish a couple of books first. Will start it over the weekend!

[Gabi]

I'm end of part I now, and I'm surprised how down to earth the story is so far.

[Dawn F]

I'm halfway through and in typical Nnedi style it's blunt, beautiful and immediately accessible. Her characters are always very passionate, temperamental and outspoken - very different from my polite, reserved Scandinanvian upbringing XD It's probably one reason I'm attracted to her universe (and other West African science fantasy), it's so refreshing.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'll be following along! I really enjoyed the part of the book we spent in her hometown!

[Gabi]

Allison, your rating doesn't bode well ;)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Haha I was missing a few of the content warnings when I read it and wasn't in a frame of mind to process them. I trust that my experience is not the usual :)

[Dawn F]

Just finished it. An incredible read but quite clearly not for anyone sensitive or squeamish. That Scene is probably one of the worst things I’ve ever read, I don’t know if I can ever get those mental images out of my mind.

The whole story is, however, written without sentimentality, self pity or unnecessarily gruesome. It was matter of factly written, and overall the characters were remarkably strong. Even if magical powers were a part of the story it was never used as a plot device. Everything the characters could and did came from within them and their will to do it.

This is the third work of Nnedi I’ve read and I don’t think she necessarily is a very good literary writer, she pretty much writes as she feels it coming and it can get a bit uneven. There were moments where I felt the plot floundered a bit, but overall it was far more stringent than Binti, and had less of an abrupt ending than Lagoon. Also, I don’t personally need a book to be a perfect piece of handicraft for me to enjoy it. Her personal style is so strong that it can hold its own.

Now I’m really curious to see this as an HBO series, it can only be beautiful! (Though for god’s sake don’t show That Scene.)

[Gabi]

Chapter 33: I loved (view spoiler)[ the Camel scene. This was such a cute interlude from the grave topics of the rest of the story (hide spoiler)]

[Bobby]

I had planned to participate, but I'm reading like 9 books at once right now and haven't gotten to this one yet. I will be reading it for the TBR challenge though, so I'll try to remember to necro post if I don't get to it soon.

I also appreciate the content warnings as usual. Now I can prepare myself and maybe have a palate cleanser ready to break out after I'm done.

[Kaa]

I started a few days ago, but haven't gotten far because I've been sick and not feeling up for any serious reading. I just finished part 1, and I agree with Gabi about how down to earth it is. I often don't like first-person narrators, but it works for me in this story. I find myself cringing at a lot of scenes or getting angry on Onyesonwu's behalf. This is my first full novel by Okorafor (I've read some of her short stories previously) and thus far I'm pretty impressed.

[Gabi]

I finished the book and now I'm not sure how to rate it. Perhaps I was just too tired yesterday night, when I read the ending, but (view spoiler)[ I had the feeling that the last part was so uneventful, the actual fight quite lame … it left me a bit helpless, cause I really liked the rest of the book until that point. How did others feel about the last part? (hide spoiler)]

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Re the whole book:

(view spoiler)[ That's sort of how I felt from when they left her home town until what I termed "the final end." It all felt predictable, with a few moments of wonder or absolute terror.

Were you surprised by the events after she gave birth/bombed things? (hide spoiler)]

[Kaa]

Up to Ch. 20 (not super spoilery, but just to be safe): (view spoiler)[I love the female friendship in this. It feels like it flips a lot of narratives about judgement, exclusion, and betrayal among groups of teenage girls. So far at least, even when the group encounters these things they manage to overcome them and continue to support each other. (hide spoiler)]

[Kaa]

Finished! I liked it overall, but like Gabi I was a little unsure about the ending.

Re: my ch 20 comment: (view spoiler)[Okay, things got a little more complicated, but overall the relationship between the four girls remained one of my favorite parts of the story. (hide spoiler)]

@Gabi: (view spoiler)[I was worried as I got closer and closer to the end and it seemed like they were still really far from a resolution. But I kind of liked that there was no big climatic fight at the end, given that one of the themes throughout the book was Onye struggling to figure out how to solve things without violence. On the other hand, it did feel a little too easy. (hide spoiler)]

@Allison: (view spoiler)[Gave birth/bombed things? I don't remember anything like that. Did I just completely read past something? When in the story does that happen? (hide spoiler)]

[Gabi]

Allison wrote: "Re the whole book: ..."

(view spoiler)[ Do you mean the rewriting of the book? That was a good twist. I wasn't surprised though - which of course could well be due to the fact that I was completely tired when I was nearing the book, yet there were only 20 minutes left and I wanted to read them before sleeping … I had to re-read the last 4 chapters the next morning ^^' (hide spoiler)]

Kaa wrote: "Up to Ch. 20 (not super spoilery, but just to be safe): [spoilers removed]" - and up to the end of the book

Yes, (view spoiler)[ It went (unfortunately? realistically? …) a bit down the hill with the friendship, but I still felt it as rather strong. I mean, how often do we see girls working together? Usually it's the girl thrown into a boys group for good measure. So, as cruel as it were, I really liked the fact that two of them let themselves literally be torn to pieces because of their friendship to Onye. (hide spoiler)]

[Kaa]

Ahaha, I did my spoiler tags wrong in my last post so most of my comments were hidden. They should be there now.

Gabi wrote: "Yes, [spoilers removed]"

Agreed. (view spoiler)[I liked that they all had different personalities, and that Onye wasn't the only one who caused tension between them. I also liked that they had different endings - they didn't all die in the "final battle". (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

I started this by mistake thinking it was the Nnedi Okorafor title from our bookshelf. When I realized (wrong; it is The Book of Phoenix) I decided just to keep going since I had already, you know, gotten into the story a bit.

Chapter 4
(view spoiler)[ JEEEE ZUS CHRIST I just yelled out
I thought the kid would leave while she still had a chance to.

Now I wish I had switched to the other book before I got this far.
DANG
(hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

through Section 2 / Chapter 25.

{whining}
(view spoiler)[
So weary. Arguing with the old guy about teaching her, complaining about boyfriend wearing tan, magic, Four Mystical Points, physical world / wilderness / spirit forces / Creation point, blah blah. What are masquerades? Does Ewa mean child of born of rape; or some inherent result; or the "mixed" child of Okeke and Nuru, and the Nuru are the ones who do most of the raping (but the villagers do not understand genetics); or do hereditary characteristics work differently in this fantasy world?

I don't even like fantasy, why am I reading so much of it?!

Could she have an argument with her friends that involves some town gossip, not just "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "Let's make up." I liked the earlier stuff with her dad. or ... I don't know.

I am legit thankful she was able to grow back her clitoris.
(hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Dawn wrote: "Just finished it. An incredible read but quite clearly not for anyone sensitive or squeamish. That Scene is probably one of the worst things I’ve ever read, I don’t know if I can ever get those mental images out of my mind."

That Scene will join the other That Scene ("indelible in the hippocampus" if I may) from The Years of Rice and Salt. I still physically cringe when I think of it.