Review by Booklist Review
Okorafor's novella is a prequel to Who Fears Death (2010), reading like a fairy tale, with a dreamlike quality and plenty of strange occurrences. Every year, Najeeba's father and brothers make a pilgrimage to a dead lake to find salt to sell at a marketplace so that their family and their village will survive. Girls are not allowed to go, until Najeeba feels a pull that means it's time for her to travel as well. As Najeeba grows more into herself and becomes her own person, her family and friendship connections shift and change. She learns how to have out-of-body experiences and becomes an expert salt seller, something women are not allowed to do. But for Najeeba, the danger is part of the fun. Her perspective is enthralling and the descriptions of her new powers and experiences form the crux of the story. This novella ends on a cliffhanger, leaving readers excited to find out how it connects to the greater saga of Who Fears Death. Perfect for fans of N. K. Jemisin or Nalo Hopkinson. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new work from Africanfuturist Okorafor is always an event for speculative-fiction fans.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Okorafor packs a punch in her She Who Knows series launch, a return to the realm of the World Fantasy Award--winning Who Fears Death. At 13, Najeeba receives "the call," the psychic summons to the Salt Roads that only male members of the Osu-nu people experience. She's the first girl to ever feel it, but her father and brothers welcome her along with them on the trek to mine salt and sell it at the market. Along the way, several more strange occurrences mark Najeeba as different from her peers: she's drawn toward a witch on the roads, her preternatural talent at selling salt earns her family wealth, and she can do a sort of astral projection wherein her spirit channels a mysterious energy. Though Najeeba has no idea what's happening to her, it's clear that these phenomena will affect not only her but the lives of all Osu-nu and perhaps the world. Okorafor's writing style is both straightforward and poetic, creating a perfect voice for Najeeba as she comes of age. Fans of Who Fears Death will appreciate the return to this rich, fully realized world, but Okorafor keeps things accessible enough that this works just as well on its own. Readers will devour this. Agent: Angeline Rodriguez, WME. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
This first in a projected trilogy tells the tale that came before Who Fears Death by giving readers a portrait of Onye's mother as a young woman who brings both tragedy and prosperity to her family--and violence and exile to herself--in the novel's vision of an Afrocentric future. In this world, salt is life, but the gods that control access to that life-giving substance have plans that will divide humans into those who submit to them and those who want to take everything for themselves. Najeeba, "she who knows," is caught in the middle as a young woman who travels the desert and finds great power but pays for her gains with the lives of those she holds dear. VERDICT Readers who fell hard for Okorafor's award-winning Who Fears Death (recently optioned by HBO, with George R.R. Martin at the helm) will be thrilled to read this novel that dives deeply into the backstory of one of the fundamental but mysterious characters in that tale. Those who enjoyed Shadow Speaker will find a story with a similar form but featuring a much-deadlier young woman who defies the rules that are intended to reduce and confine her gifts and her spirit.--Marlene Harris
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young woman named Najeeba grapples with her place in the world. Readers of Okorafor'sWho Fears Death (2010) will be familiar with Najeeba, who becomes the powerful mother of the titular protagonist, Onyesonwu. But this prequel begins when she's just an impulsive girl and she feels called to accompany her father and brothers on their annual journey on the salt road--a trip customarily unavailable to girls. Despite the threat of becoming a social outcast, even to her closest friends, stubborn Najeeba goes along to help collect the salt left in the dead lake and sell it at the large desert market several days' travel from their village. While on her first trip, Najeeba has a strange encounter with a witch in the desert, and the contact changes her--what she sees, what she dreams, and who she becomes. Her spirit begins to move outside herself. Transformative experiences on the road and reading done at the village's Paper House lead to more questions than answers. As Najeeba delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the salt road and her family history, she must confront not only external forces but also the transcendent power within herself. The villagers may grow to accept Najeeba's journeys on the salt road, but they won't accept her as a vendor of salt, and there is no guarantee other villages will endorse her participation at all. As always with Okorafor's work, the prose is sharp and immersive, the characters provide insight into family drama and healing, and the narrative seamlessly blends elements of fantasy, folklore, and speculative fiction. The sandy, salty, dusty landscape is vivid, and the reader will learn alongside Najeeba that, just as there are ancestors in life and in stories, there are fruitions and consequences and descendants, too. This is the first in a trilogy of novellas--only the beginning of Najeeba's story. While this book may be short, its impact is anything but small. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
