Akata Witch (2020)

Until this book I’d never really appreciated the push for ‘representation’ in fiction. As an albino I’m used to the world not looking like me, fr white to be the norm but ‘too white’ to be coded as evil/weird, even more so when the person is albino - such as the Da Vinci Code.

But in this book I see myself and I dearly wish this had been around when I was growing up. I love Sunny, I recognise the bullying and the insults and how she feels about them. I love the way she enters this world and starts learning about it and the relationships with Sasha, Chichi and Orlu.

I do wish her sun sensitivity hadn’t been removed but I did like the realistic references to the struggle with sun sensitivity for her eyes.

I loved the way the plot developed, with the mundane concerns mixed with the life threatening and found the world fascinating. I’ve seen other readers reference Harry Potter but to me there are only the most superficial similarities which any book with a mundane character entering a magical world has to have. To me this felt very unique, rooted in place and I loved the way the author created a sense of history and culture within the story.


5/5