An Awesome Debut!

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I received an ARC of this book from BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.

This book was such an enjoyable experience to read. Not only is it well-written, with real and human characters, but the Pan-African lore was absolutely fantastic (and something we need to see more of in YA fantasy)! The world-building was so great, simple and easy to understand yet incredibly complex. I loved the inclusive of real mythology and mythic creatures, it added a lot to the narrative and it was fascinating to learn.

My favorite thing about the novel was how human the characters were – both Ekon and Koffi made multiple mistakes throughout the course of the story and had both positive/negative traits. As someone with OCD, I absolutely adored that Ekon counted in numerals of three; in addition, it was so great that Koffi didn’t find his finger tapping strange because I totally understand the fear of being perceived as different. It was a small moment but a really great one and it stuck out to me.

As stated in the author’s note, I especially loved that the author named many of their prominent Black characters after historical/famous Black revolutionaries! I thought that was an excellent touch and it went well with the anti-colonial themes present throughout the novel. I LOVED how Ekon was both a Black scholar and warrior instead of either/or (and, as the author states, was also surrounded by Black academics)!

Overall, a really great debut novel! I cannot wait to read the sequel! 5/5 stars