Book Review: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

This is a story of sorrow and perseverance. In a post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, Onyesonwu has to survive her birth and her future and set a new path for herself despite being a child of rape and persecution. She is the one who has been foretold to come and shake out the outdated views about race and women. Her golden skin and anger have set her apart for so long; now she is to find her destiny and learn to use the magic in her to free the people of genocide.

The book handles big subjects, what it means to be a woman in a traditional society, which still uses genital mutilation, rape, incest, and denying access as an acceptable way to dominate the societal landscape. The book is brutal about those things and doesn’t shy away, showing what it means when the skin is cut. There doesn’t seem to be a simple answer for the protagonist and her friends regarding how to view subjects as it is in real life, too. Nnedi Okorafor shows the complexity of such a society and the views people held.

I find it difficult to review the book. I read what other people had written about Who Fears Death, and there seem to be contradicting reactions to the book. I didn’t mind the rape and mutilation part as some did. Those are important subjects to handle, and the book handled them respectfully. I didn’t mind the coming-of-age story being riddled with cliches. You don’t have to invent a wheel; you just need to give a new perspective. Nnedi Okorafor did that with the setting and the issues she handles in the book. But what I agree with the other reviews was the relationship between the characters themselves and with the story. The conflicts, the betrayals, the dismissive talk, the excessively aggressive initial reactions, and the selfishness put me off. And I wondered why this was so. Was I the wrong audience? If I was younger and less attuned to my emotions and accepting towards others, would I have found the characters more compelling? They are still learning who they are and how they want to be in the world. But for me, their actions and interpersonal conflicts took so much away from the importance of their destiny, and that was to free the lands from genocide. Their actions belittled the death of some and gave sympathy for the “devil,” and I found that confusing and irritating.

I don’t know.

Thank you for reading! Have a wonderful day ❤