These two books complete the trilogy started with Binti, and easily make Nnedi Okorafor the most reviewed writer here on Reading Well. Certainly, I am a fan, but that’s also a product of Okorafor’s tendency to write in what are at most long novellas: it’s all very easily consumed over just a few sessions.
Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade (both 2017) take up where Binti left off, and continue the story of our young, mathematically gifted namesake who remains precocious, emotionally scarred, and in therapy. This last is a minor plot point, but an example of how Okorafor plays with the genre, preferring to imagine Binti’s life as vividly problematic–and real–as it could be, instead of a boarding school fantasy set in a scifi context.
The final two books trace Binti’s return home, her discovery of some disturbing (yet somewhat obvious) revelations about her family’s past, and her role in brokering peace between two warring factions. There’s even a cellular reconstruction that is dramatic more as you wonder how Okorafor is going to ressurect Binti than thinking she might actually kill her main character.
Still, the story is creative as all get out, and the core characters–Binti, a peer compatriot, and the alien life form with which she is genetically bonded–are all well drawn. If you want to keep a finger on the pulse of contemporary YA fiction, and are interested in what a non-European take on that through a scifi lens might feel like, this is a rewarding, quick read.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
It’s nothing new: Okorafor’s creativity is immense, and daunting, and she respects it to the point that she doesn’t feel the need to over-explain parts of it. That may be the most impressive thing of all to me: the immense trust she places in her readers.