Akata Witch
There are only so many stories. Or perhaps I should say that there are only so many plots. A person goes on a journey. A stranger comes to town. Two people fall in love. You could argue that there's only one story: a person goes on a journey. You might shift the viewpoint (so he comes to town). The journey might be physical or emotional or mental. It all boils down to a person starting in one place and ending up in a different place, and the story is how they get there.
When you read as much as I do, these structures become familiar, comfortable. Stories are interesting because of the details they provide, the different ways they can get you to see the world. Reading about the same people doing the same things all the time gets boring because, as I said, there are only so many stories to tell. But reading about different people doing those same things. That's how you learn and grow. The familiarity of the story makes it easier to learn about different cultures and ways of life, the same way you can learn new words from context clues without having to consult a dictionary.
So. Akata Witch. It's a chosen-one story. A coming of age. It's about magic and initiation and friendship and the end of the world. It's about finding the place you belong after a life spent on the edges. It's about family legacies and family friction and family disappointment. It's about all of these things which are intimately familiar to me, as they are to most people.
And it's about Nigeria, which is becoming more familiar to me through the books I read, and which I want to learn more about. So I keep reading Adichie and Oyeyemi and now Okorafor, who are masters of the craft and who use the familiar structure of stories to teach me about the unfamiliar, to make it recognizable and human. Use the similarities to teach the differences to celebrate it all.
I liked this book a lot. It's well-paced and the magic is fun. I have serious questions about the economy of the magical world, but maybe they'll be answered in the sequel. Then again, maybe they won't. Maybe it will also just be about the friends who become family and finding the courage to stand up to monsters and working together to save the world. Some things are universal, or should be.
When you read as much as I do, these structures become familiar, comfortable. Stories are interesting because of the details they provide, the different ways they can get you to see the world. Reading about the same people doing the same things all the time gets boring because, as I said, there are only so many stories to tell. But reading about different people doing those same things. That's how you learn and grow. The familiarity of the story makes it easier to learn about different cultures and ways of life, the same way you can learn new words from context clues without having to consult a dictionary.
So. Akata Witch. It's a chosen-one story. A coming of age. It's about magic and initiation and friendship and the end of the world. It's about finding the place you belong after a life spent on the edges. It's about family legacies and family friction and family disappointment. It's about all of these things which are intimately familiar to me, as they are to most people.
And it's about Nigeria, which is becoming more familiar to me through the books I read, and which I want to learn more about. So I keep reading Adichie and Oyeyemi and now Okorafor, who are masters of the craft and who use the familiar structure of stories to teach me about the unfamiliar, to make it recognizable and human. Use the similarities to teach the differences to celebrate it all.
I liked this book a lot. It's well-paced and the magic is fun. I have serious questions about the economy of the magical world, but maybe they'll be answered in the sequel. Then again, maybe they won't. Maybe it will also just be about the friends who become family and finding the courage to stand up to monsters and working together to save the world. Some things are universal, or should be.
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