Audiobook Review – Akata Witch (Akata Witch, Book 1) by Nnedi Okorafor, Narrated by Yetide Badaki (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 8 hours and 49 minutes
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Release Date: March 30, 2018
ASIN: B07BNW2YKR
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Akata Witch series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she has albinism. She’s a terrific athlete but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in.

And then she discovers something amazing – she is a “free agent” with latent mystical power. Soon she’s part of a quartet of students studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be enough to help them when they are asked to catch a career criminal well-versed in powerful juju?”

This is the first book in the Akata Witch series. As far as I can tell this is a duology. This was okay but not great. I had a bit of trouble understanding the narrator of the audiobook and I never really engaged with the story or characters.

I listened to this on audiobook and, while I applaud the use of a narrator who can do excellent African accents, I did struggle to understand the narrator in situations where there was a lot of background noise (like driving).

The setting is unique and the African mythology here was intriguing. However, aside from that this was a pretty typical YA paranormal story. This was fairly predictable and I never engaged with the characters or the world that well.

I also felt like transitions between scenes were abrupt and I often times didn’t realize we had switched locations or how much time had passed untilI got further into the scene. I am not sure if this was the writing itself or because of how the audiobook was put together.

Overall this wasn’t my favorite and I don’t plan on continuing the series. It is an intriguing read if you have an interest in African mythology but otherwise I would skip it.