The story started out strong, full of anticipation, action, and intensity. There were a lot of words and culture I was not familiar with, that I had to look up so I could understand it better. For instance, I didn't know griot or garri, and I didn't know if those were actual African words or fictional items. I don't mean this to be offensive, but since it's my first time seeing these words, it took me some time to look it up and familiarize myself with them. I don't know if a footnote, a description of the item, or some imagery would help me get it faster, but I like how culturally informed the book is.