Binti - Home and Night Masquerade

Sometimes when I'm working on a series, it feels a little silly to make separate posts for each book. I think this is my solution. Here are my goodreads reviews for the last two books in the Binti Series. This is a excellent introduction to the author. All three book come in right at 200 or few pages, so in many ways reading all three in quick succession feels like reading a single more sizable book.



Home by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Home is very much a story about the price of change. It picks up about a year after the first story of Binti. Binti and the Meduse, Okwu, are enrolled at the Oomza University, but Binti is struggling. In the previous story Binti is physically changed by the Meduse and that change has consequences especially for a girl from a very insular people. Binti feels the need to return home and Okwu goes with her as friend and Meduse ambassador.

It’s very clear that this is a bridge book, or the central story, in a series. As such, it opens more conflicts than it resolves. The relationship between the Meduse and Khoush is developed. More problematically, Binti is shoved into more change as she discovers a previously unclaimed heritage from her father’s side that pulls her away from her home just as crises strikes and the book ends. It’s all rather abrupt.

It’s an excellent story but it cannot stand on it’s own the way either Binti or the next book, The Night Masquerade, can.

View all my reviews

and...

The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There’s a piece of advice often give to creative writing students to start their stories in the middle of the action. This avoids the common problem of getting lost in exposition. Okorafor is a master of this. Night Masquerade starts with a nightmare that might be more than just a dream. Binti’s family is trapped in a burning cellar. This opening passage establishes a dark tense mood that pervades the first half of the text. It also introduces a sense of Binti’s state which is full of insecurity and fear not only for herself but for her family.

I have to say that I rarely get surprised by a story these days. I read a lot and narrative structure tends to follow certain patterns, so when an author succeeds in surprising me, I take note. Okorafor, pulled it off. Without saying too much and ruining the surprise, in a series about transformation, Binti undergoes the ultimate in transformation stories. I sat there around page 120 or so going….surely not, there’s still 80 pages to go. It’s excellent. It is worth reading the rest of the series (which is very good and worth reading anyway) just to get to this book.

View all my reviews