like a 3.5 ish.

some really fun scifi concepts and worldbuilding - & binti herself is Neat - but i think this may have been too short for what it wanted to accomplish. some very dramatic turnarounds happen very quickly, and (what should be) very big problems suddenly have simple and suspiciously convenient solutions. it just doesn't feel emotionally genuine.

like i truly feel like we went from A B C straight to fucking... P Q in re: binti & okwu's relationship. for one.

wait actually i'm not done with spoilers.

i get what okorafor was going for with the medusa but i still think everyone kind of slid past them massacring a whole ship of students a little quickly i fear.

i still had fun reading this and will be going right ahead to the next story in the series, and it was such a quick read it'd recommend checking it out.