ohhh i'm sorry to be a hater but... this just really magnified all the stuff i don't care for about the series.

the geopolitical situation develops unconvincingly and nonsensically, the relationships don't have time to grow, and the solutions all go a bit deus-ex-machina. this was also the first one where the prose actively bugged me at times.

i think part of the issue is that this truly and honestly reads like YA, but is trying to handle topics with a level of complexity that's better suited for adult fiction. i see this shelved as YA a lot, but it was published as adult sci-fi; nnedi okorafor lists it under the 'adult' section on her own website. but it reads YA in its pacing, in its (over)simplification of certain plot points, in its tone,

in its wildly unnecessary instalove romance man cmon we he LOVES binti?? that was quick brother!!

. also i still say this is too much for a novella.

also i'm sorry but two separate character death fakeouts is too much to inflict upon a reader in a 200 page novella. they're both in the back half too. give me a break.

there's still very fun ideas and worldbuidling but with this final entry, it was just not enough to counterbalance all the rest of it for me.

(r/fantasy book bingo read, square: POC author - i read the whole series for it. also works for:  novella, queernorm if you wanna be real generous.)