Absolutely love this sequel to She Who Knows. We get into more of Najeeba's story in adulthood and how she trains to become a sorceress. This woman pulls more men than me and I see husband #3 on the way. This concept of atonement is interesting. I cant wait to see how this all ends as she heads back to her village to face one final fear.

This novella is a fresh feel for me, a novel perspective from what I’m used to reading in the fantasy genre. The plot is a strong concept, a follow-on story from a previous novel, in which the mother of the previous main character is learning to awaken her magical powers in the way her daughter did. My favorite part of the book was these segments in which she’s fully realizing her strength and doing something fantastical, to great effect in her environment or on her life.

The writing style at times was not quite my thing, but I want to leave room for other’s tastes, so a few things I will go over that won’t affect my scoring. Read on to see if this sounds like something you’re interested in.

I could see this as a triggering text, as there is a lot of misogyny and discussion of rape. It’s pretty much the central thread of the plot. I understand it is describing a different culture, however, and the sexual mores of this culture are just different than what I’m used to. It’s not really the fact that there are characters that act agist and misogynistic exist in the book, so much as the fact that those types of interactions are the bulk of the book, so there’s nothing to balance it out. Many of the characters are rude, arrogant, and authoritarian, which can be harsh to read.

Even with the main character being this incredibly powerful woman sorceress, her entire life and essence is being talked down to by men, serving them, being used and abused by them. They fear her, put her down, make demands of her. It’s just hard to watch. Even the one man in her life who’s supposed to be decent, all she does is cook for him and sleep with him. The last 1/3 improves in this regard since it becomes more heavily plot focused and less relationships with people.

Overall, if you read and liked the main novel this was based on, I would imagine this would be something you would like to pick up. Rating this on the world building, magic system, and novelty, 3.5 stars, check it out.

*An uncorrected proof of this book was provided by the publisher at the reviewer’s request in exchange for a fair and uncompromising review.

One Way Witch by Nnedi Okorafor is the second book in the trilogy of fantasy novellas set in the Who Fears Death and Phoenix universe, with a focus on Onyesonwu's mother, who turns out to also be a sorcress. It is quite a gripping book and I read it in a short while. I feel like one may need to reread Who Fears Death for better context. Thank you, Netgalley and DAW, for the ARC. All opinions expressed are mine