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bookswithdizz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
1.75
This book was originally published in 2007 and republished with new material in 2023. So why did Nnedi Okorafor choose to keep the m slur (derogatory for people with dwarfism) in the book. The quoutw even reads "m slure, little person". So she had the proper termanology and chose to be offensive regardless.
I listened to the last 25-30% of this on audio 2.25 apeed drifting in and out of sleep but I will say the second half of the story is more expansive and less interesting. I will not be reading the second book.
I listened to the last 25-30% of this on audio 2.25 apeed drifting in and out of sleep but I will say the second half of the story is more expansive and less interesting. I will not be reading the second book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism
Use of m slurchippyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
2.0
2 stars.
Whimsical, adventurous and inventive.
Fatphobia, ableism and possibly transphobic.
Ableism: Short person described as a mi*get. Pretty sure this word is a slur. Please correct me if I’m wrong but even google says it is.
Fatphobia: The villain is described as fat SO MANY times. I’ll let the quotes speak for themselves.
-‘He was the kind of fat that only came from eating more than a camel ate in a day. Ejii’s mother would have been disgusted. His body broadcast excess and greed’
-‘The type of man who had top bring others down to lift himself up, and he was a lot to lift’
-“Walking food machine”!
-‘Enormous girth’
-‘his soft exposed belly’
-‘Giant pig’, Bloated with fear’
-‘so… hungry, for power, food’
-‘he wants to consume all things’
-‘he is fat, unnatural’
-“crush you with half my weight”!
This language goes unchallenged. There were other ways to tell us this man was selfish. This book has been rewritten and it’s being published like this.
Transphobia: There is a creature that ‘can tell’ when a man dresses as a woman. Yet there is no care taken to say trans women and women in the text, which leaves the author's intent a mystery.
FInal Thoughts: Without all of this I was leaning towards 3 stars. Magic mixed with science seemed clunky and the pace felt jarring. The start was fantastic but it just kept going downhill from there. The ending was apparently rewritten in order for this to be a duology, which I also have the ARC for because I loved reading Binti. I was looking forward to reading more of Okorafo’s work; we'll see if that's still the case after book 2.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Transphobia
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