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How different my life would have been if my parents had just let me dance. (p. 174)

Sixteen was not an age that I would ever want to return to, yet this is where Binti finds herself at the beginning of the trilogy. Like many teens, she is too interested in pleasing everyone and fails to please most.

The Binti trilogy follows a fairly typical YA storyline, although takes place in a different context: a teen breaks away from her traditional African parents who are well-meaning but don't understand her or her desire to go to university (many planets away). She follows her dreams to become someone much more than her family and village had imagined. Unlike many YA books, she both breaks away and stays connected to her heritage throughout. While YA protagonists are often supported by other YAs, she is supported by and allowed to flower in a diverse community. Themes of xeonophobia and multicultural acceptance are central to this story.

Binti becomes more than human in the book and, from my perspective, this supernatural aspect is where the Binti trilogy falters. I'm sure that this flatters and encourages her YA audience, but what if you are a garden variety or even a bright misfit? What message is Nnedi Okorafor giving her young readers? On the other hand, as the opening quote in this review suggests, some of our parents' misguided restrictions can be a gift in disguise.

I can't imagine reading this trilogy of novellas and a new short story separately, as I had considered doing. They read here as a single book, even though they were first published independently between 2015 and 2019. The short story falls second in the sequence of four and, from my perspective, is the strongest.

A with Nnedi Okorafor.