Noor by Nnedi Okarafor

I'd heard a lot about Nnedi Okarafor for several years but never got around to picking up one of her books. When I needed to read an Afrofuturist book for a reading challenge at the end of last year, I knew that Noor by Nnedi Okarafor would fit the bill perfectly.

Noor is a novella that follows a protagonist named AO, a young woman who lives in the small Nigerian town of Abuja. Born disabled and later involved in a horrific car crash in her early teens, AO has spent her life being fitted with cybernetic enhancements to the point where many now consider her “more machine than human.” While most locals happily accept those who have some minor enhancements, AO lives in fear of “jungle justice” from those who consider her a demon, witch, or simply an abomination. So when a bunch of men in a marketplace turn on her, AO uses all her superhuman powers to fight back.

Now on the run, AO escapes into the desert where she encounters DNA, a Fulani herdsman who himself escaped a massacre on his people along with just two of his cattle after some townspeople decided the Fulani are terrorists. The two set out together to try and find some peace, but they live in a world where drones fill the skies and everything is streamed, and now all of Nigeria is following the manhunt for the murderess and the terrorist. As they travel, they uncover truths about themselves and the world around them, but how will they reveal those truths to a world that considers them to be villains?

I enjoyed Noor but didn’t consider it to be one of my favorite books of last year. I suspect that this was largely due to the pacing. Noor is a very short novella at just 224 pages and it just didn't feel long enough to give the story the level of world-building it deserved. People and entities were introduced with little context so I often found that I was told something was bad or good without it ever being explained why that was and then the story would rush off to its next scene leaving me a little bewildered about how I was supposed to feel.

If it had space to grow, Noor could have easily been a four or five-star read but with its wings clipped so heavily here, I ended up rating it a three instead.

My Rating: 3/5

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