Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - Who Fears Death

This has been such an honour to read. Onyesonwu is a child of rape, of anger and of magic. Living in a post apocalyptic African society Onye is living through a genocide of her mother’s people committed by the people of her unknown biological father. When ancient shapeshifter magic stores in her bones Onyesonwu knows she can keep her primal rage silent no more and sets into the desert to change the world.

Listen, if you are going to read this book there are a ton of trigger warnings. But, oh god is it worth it. This book is going to be one I think I about constantly. Please read it if you have the capacity.

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This will probably be a 5 star when I reread it one day. Wow. It's a complex story, feels epic in scale, but also has relatable and realistic characters. My new favourite Nnedi Okorafor book.

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essireads's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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nightoscphere's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

when i say this book had me fucking GAGGING like idk... i cant even tell u why this book had me gripped but it did!! even if i didnt fuck with any of the men in this entire book (mwita on VERY FUCKING THIN ICE), it was such a good ride i simply couldn't put it down!! i love the way magic works in this world and how unabashedly human it is — our teen protagonists & co kill, have sex, and fight and aren't (permanently) shamed for acting like teens in a fucked up post apocalyptic magical sudan! this is the first adult fantasy book ive finished in a long time where i didn't feel like the worldbuilding was lackluster, where the prose didnt bore me to tears and the characters had some meat to their bones! it wasn't convoluted (like so many white fantasy stories are 🙄), the use of words i didn't know didn't take away from my reading experience, and i wasnt bothered by it's pacing, like you really need to sit with onye's journey we cant just skip to the action!

i was a bit confused by the end but after reading some (very poor interpretations of this book on reddit) i got it and really appreciate that ofc for the woman who does not fear death, death would not be a limitation! i need time to sit with it ofc, but whether or not onye is alive doesn't matter to me (at least for now) bc what does matter is that a sorceress like her is gonna find a way to connect to the ones she loves!! and i hope she does, i hope she's chilling w/ binta, luyu, mwita & their child, i hope her mother visits in between her lessons w/ aro. i also love that daib's end is worse than death — he's forever fucked up by mwita, can't do magic without sacrificing his health/life, AND every single woman has powers!! he just has to sit there and watch his daughter's legacy on the face of each n every woman he walks past — nuru, okeke, or ewu — and know that if he hadnt been such a sick bastard all these years ago he never would've fucked around with the wrong one and found out!!

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