Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor is the stunning finale to the mystical Nsibidi Scripts trilogy that blends African folklore, and Nigerian culture/ traditions with contemporary life.

Themes of friendship, identity, and personal growth take center stage, as Sunny and her Leopard Knocks friends navigate complicated magical politics and face immense battles. The world-building resonates with vibrant life, creating a captivating backdrop for the complex challenges and growth Sunny faces.

Through her vivid writing style, Okorafor shines a light on gender and cultural complexities, and exploration of the diaspora experience and cultural struggle add substance to the narrative. A finale well worth the wait, Akata Woman is a story you're not gonna want to miss.

***Purchased and read for my own enjoyment. ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/hugos-2023-lodestar-award-for-best-ya-book/

I am sorry to keep sounding grumpy. But this was a case where I had quite enjoyed the second book, when I read it way back in 2018, having missed the first; and this seemed to me a rather unspectacular magical training school story, if set in a slightly different culture. ( )

~2.5 stars. I read this because I read the other two in the series earlier this year and wanted to wrap it up. I could see myself liking this when I was in middle school but everything feels pretty flat to me now. The main characters are 15, in the first book they are 12, but it doesn't feel like they have changed much in that time. ( )

Akata Woman is the third book in Nnedi Okorafor's "Nsibidi Scripts" YA fantasy series, and the second to be a finalist for the Hugo-adjacent Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (in fact, the second book won the first award). I thought the first book was just okay, but found the second much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I thought this was back to the level of the first one. The cast of characters, protagonist Sunny aside, seemed largely interchangeable to me, and the plot never really took off. Basically, Sunny and her friends go to a place, it gets described, then they go to a different place, repeat until suddenly the book comes to an end. An okay travelogue, but it did little for me.

Sunny is now 15, and she and her friends continue to progress in their juju studies. But the threat of Udide, the giant spider creature, still hangs over them -- Udide has demanded that Sunny and Chichi restore her missing item to her, and now, she's given them a deadline. Sasha and Orlu aren't about to let the girls have an adventure alone, so the four set out together on a journey that will take them first to Nimm Village, home of the female warriors whose blood runs through Sunny and Chichi's veins, and then to an entirely different world.

It took me a bit to get back into this since it's been a while since I read the first two books in the series, but once I settled back into the world, I was hooked. A solid entry in the series and I look forward to the next one. Okorafor's writing is always so inventive and fresh-feeling. No wonder the blurbs on this book's dust jacket are so insane -- she has endorsements from Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Rick Riordan. 4 stars. ( )