Nnedi Okorafor does it again!! After reading She Who Knows, I immediately fell in love with Nnedi’s writing. This sequel was no different. Not only was the writing absolutely gorgeous, but I just love being able to escape into new fantasy worlds, which this author supports you in doing. It’s just a mesmerizing and somewhat confusing (in a good way) experience as a reader.

Overall, I really enjoyed exploring more of Najeeba’s story, especially as we see her her struggle with letting go of control, mourn her ex husband and forgive people from her past, embrace agency and find love. Older Black women characters deserve all the love in fantasy stories, too. I also loved the magic and sorcery in this book, especially her training scenes. I found the bickering between the two entertaining and her reflection with the camel one of the most memorable scenes in the book. I also just love Nnedi’s refusal to fit into any boxes while writing, which made the story unique. I think people reading her work think too hard, not that they shouldn’t, but if you go into it expecting something “traditional” and stale, you’ll have no idea how to handle this story.

I do wish I understood this book’s connection to Who Fears Death because I haven’t read that one yet. At times I was confused because some of the events described in this book obviously took place in the Who Fears Death book. I only had the previous book, She Who Knows, and the prologue to lean on. Either way, I’m really looking forward to the third book in the series and hope we get to spend more time with Najeeba.

Thank you for the ARC. It is such a joy to read more of Nnedi Okorafor’s writing.
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I finished She Who Knows earlier this year & re-read Who Fears Death which helped me keep up with a lot that was happening. It helps a lot to read both. You’re even nudged to do so. I wish more authors would write “recaps,” though. That was a lovely touch.

I genuinely love Nnedi Okorafor’s writing. This was such an emotional continuation. As it ended, I found myself waiting for more pages to appear. Not to rush the process, but I look forward to reading what comes next.

One thing to note, is you really need to read Who Fears Death before picking up the second novella in the series! One Way Witch begins during the events of that novel and mostly occurs after Onyesonwu, the daughter of Najeeba, had changed the world.

This novella is about a woman in middle-age finding herself in a new way, healing from the past, and stepping into her power and who she might become. It explores how the body carries memories of trauma, even when the mind doesn't remember the details, and how art can be a form of healing and catharsis. I don't know what it is, but across both novellas I have found Najeeba and her story to be so very compelling. I liked Who Fears Death for what it's doing, but these novellas have both hit me in a different way. Loved it. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I truly believe that Nnedi Okorafor is a phenomenal writer with an unmatched imagination. Sadly, this book reads like the middle of a trilogy, as it is. It is one that should not be read without first reading Who Fears Death and She Who Knows. It would make absolutely no sense without reading those first.

We return to Najeeba after the events of Who Fears Death. Her daughter is gone, the world has changed due to the rewriting of the Great Book. Almost no one remembers what happened before but the trauma remains. People are coming from the Nuru lands but do not know why they left. Najeeba is training with Aro and becoming stronger in her own ways.

Definitely a must-read for anyone who has already read in this world but also I recommend starting Who Fears Death as soon as possible.

Thank you to Net Galley and DAW for the DRC. All opinions are my own!

One Way Witch is the second book in the She Who Knows Trilogy. It follows Najeeba as a middle aged adult after the departure of her daughter, who has changed the world (book: Who Fears Death). Najeeba trains to become a powerful sorcerer in order to address the threat of the 'Cleansers.' This book is mainly about her journey in grief after her daughter leaves and her husband dies. It's also about her finding love, addressing traumas from her past and coming into her extraordinary power.

I enjoyed her first book in this series slightly more because that world with the salt mines and her as a child was just incredible from the first page to last. This book was much darker, which I do think was necessary for this particular story arc. For a short book, I'm consistently amazed at how this author packs so much story into so few pages. The vibes and the imagination is just a joy to read and it's one of the many reasons I love this author. The way she wrote the water scene near the end of the book was amazing.

I can't wait to keep promoting this author and her books at our small bookstore! While I do feel like the themes this author writes about and the way she handles the magical realism, and darker material may not appeal to the larger masses, I do think this author deserves a lot more visibility for her works.

I received an ARC from #netgalley to read this book.

When I sat down to read this book I had recently finished She Who Knows but hadn’t read The Book of Phoenix nor Who Fears Death. The beginning of One Way Witch provides a summary of what went down in Who Fears Death (it’s intense) and I realized that while this summary was helpful I was doing myself a disservice by not reading that book before reading this novella. I devoured it and then quickly read The Book of Phoenix. Initial thought was, “wow I see so many connections across this book universe even in the Akata series…” I then went back to She Who Knows and skimmed it again with these eyes that had taken in the two other books.

With all this in mind, I’m not terribly surprised I was taken back by what felt like such an abrupt end to this book. I realize it is novella but I had been comparing it to She Who Knows which felt like a much more complete story. It’s difficult to really evaluate this book on its own because it feels like I’m missing at least a chapter. This feeling is so strong that I keep wondering if perhaps something was amiss with the ARC file. Well, I look forward to the next in this series as I really really don’t like cliffhangers.

Thank you NetGalley and DAW for the ARC of One Way Witch. I really liked this book. The world building was great and it was a good continuation of the first book in the trilogy. Najeeba’s character really grew in this book. The author also did a great job setting up suspense for the final book in the trilogy. For being a novella the author did a great job packing a lot into such a few pages. I am really looking forward to the next book1

[Thank you, DAW and NetGalley, for providing this eARC in exchange for my honest review.]

Nnedi Okorafor's One Way Witch meditates heavily on themes of becoming, grief and trauma, racial violence, the many kinds of love, and what it means to atone especially for those wronged. The tale's juju system and the Mystic Points far beyond it is captivating, threading weight and vitality through many painfully happy on-page years. West African cultures inspire each moment (each everything) with adoring fire. Most authors love their worlds in their way but rarely is that love so clearly radiant as in this, Najeeba's time between times. A perfect salt cube.

One Way Witch is the warm, shifting sand as you nap in the sun. It burns as it soothes, and then burns again. It's slow. Pensive. Najeeba, careful in her reckless way, reflects on her life (lives) and Okorafor invites the reader to do the same. I'm loathe to say more and mar the mirror for future readers—this is a story best heard unfiltered. Be still and be ready.

What I will say: I strongly recommend starting with Who Fears Death. Okorafor's seminal Africanfuturist novel is the foundation for Najeeba's own series even as book one, She Who Knows, breathes to life years before Onyesonwu sets out to change the world. Okorafor recommended it first, in the author's note, so you know it's real. Settle in. Let this world become home.

Not the kind of read that my customers would buy. They just want light holiday reads. I couldn't sell as I didn't enjoy it myself.

One Way Witch is the second book in the She Who Knows series. This book is about what happens after the events from Who Fears Death so I highly recommend reading Who Fears Death, before reading One Way Witch to fully understand the story. As for the story Najeeba is forty and learning from Aro the sorcerer to become one. I absolutely love Nnedi Okorafor's worldbuilding and appreciate how she creates a shared universe across her novels. I don't know what to say without spoiling it but it was a really good story. I highly recommend this series and can't wait to read the final installment. Thanks to Netgalley and DAW for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'll post my review closer to the publication date.

This is the story of Najeeba’s midlife – her daughter is gone and her second husband is dead. She wants to learn more about witching and becoming the kponyungo. She must learn new ways to open her mind and heart to confront people and events in her distant and near past and in the future.
Nnedi Okorafor always cracks me open and forces me to look at things in new ways. Her books are mind bending and satisfying and magical.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for this DRC.
#OneWayWitch #NetGalley

'I walked into the desert, in the opposite direction my daughter would soon walk and never return from. I wasn't afraid to be alone. Onyesonwu held me to this world. Without her, I was nothing. I clung to the weight of her. If only to be there for her if she somehow needed me. And so I walked into the desert to unlock something I'd put away long ago.'

One Way Witch shows Najeeba's perspective of the time immediately before and after her daughter's remaking of the world, which story is told in Who Fears Death. This book acts as a bridge for Najeeba from these events to the role she knows she has to play in the future of the new world.

Though Nnedi Okorafor's writing is as evocative as ever of the pain and anguish experienced by the protagonists, this book is essentially some time off for Najeeba as she studies magic and processes her feelings to move on - and the slow story arc reflects this break. Her character arc remains strong as she actively journeys to where she wants to be in her life.

The book on the whole is still recommended for anyone who wants to follow the series and keep tabs on the world-building. The strengths of the book, and the series, are definitely the writing and the character arcs.

Thanks to NetGalley, Nnedi Okorafor and the publishers DAW for the advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

🌟🌟🌟
[3/4 stars for the premise and the whole book; Half a star for the writing; Half a star for the world-building; Half a star for the story arc; 3/4 stars for the characters - Three stars in total].

Black History Month

I read SHE WHO KNOWS for a book club I didn't end up attending. I loved it. Though short, it packed a punch. This is also short. It packs no punches. I found myself so bored with the continuation of Najeeba's story. She has grown into a rather staid adult. There are reasons for this, but as I zoned in and out of this book, I won't go into them.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and DAW

One Way Witch follows Najeeba, a woman with natural abilities as a sorcerer, as she trains in these abilities with the intention of going after a threat stalks and takes people from the village she grew up in. It occurs after Najeeba’s daughter has left and changed the world, and Najeeba is mourning both the loss of her husband and her daughter, processing grief. I didn’t love this as much as She Who Knows – it did feel a bit ‘middle book’ in that a lot of it is backstory as well as anticipatory of what will be the plot of the final book – but Okorafor’s writing is impactful and beautiful as always and the character development of Najeeba is really effective. I will certainly pick up the final installment and finish this trilogy.

This is a sequel to the novella She Who Knows; I strongly discourage reading this one first as key elements of the backstory of the characters would be missing. These books are also set in the same universe as Who Fears Death, which follows Onyesonwu, Najeeba’s daughter, and chronologically falls mostly between these two novellas; I have not read this book but can still easily make sense of these novellas (though they refer to – and no doubt contain spoilers – for the novel).

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing me an ARC to review.

Content warnings: rape, sexual assault, violence, slavery (as having occurred prior to the plot of this story), animal cruelty, animal death

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for providing a DRC in exchange for an hones review.

3.75 out of 5 stars

After reading She Who Knows, I could immediately tell someone what the book was about in its entirety. With One Way Witch, I feel like the author meandered through the storyline, circling back on parts, taking the scenic route, getting lost along the way. I wonder if it is because I didn't realize I should have read Who Fears Death before I read either of these.

OWW takes places decades after SWK. Najeeba has left her first husband after a tragic ordeal, lives in Jwahir, and her second husband has passed on. Her daughter has saved the world, and in doing so, unwrote her own birth. Najeeba remembers the Before. But most don't. Instead, they feel themselves with almost-memories they can't quite grasp, and a lot of people come untethered to the lives they were living in the Before. The Nurus no longer enslave the Okeke in this new world, but the echoes of hate are still there.

Najeeba, in the interim decades, has sold cactus candy at her shop, has not gone witching, has not become the kponyungo. Now, though, she embraces those things she has long left behind. She also goes to the sorcerer, Aro, who taught her daughter, and asks him to teach her so that she can go back to the village of her birth and rid the world of The Cleanser.

Meanwhile, Dedan, an Okeke slave from Before, wanders until he comes to Jwahir. He opens up a glass shop. When he goes to Najeeba's candy store, there's an immediate connection. Dedan also begins building a glass house. Najeeba calls it a passion project, but in reality, it seems as though Dedan is compelled to build it.

As Najeeba gets further in her studies of sorcery, she finds that there is a history beyond even the history of Before, and it threatens to break her, and when someone from her past finds her in Jwahir, all her anger and rage beg for release.

Don't get me wrong. OWW was still a mesmerizing, captivating book. I don't think Okorafor has the capability of writing something that doesn't hypnotize the reader. It just felt a little...all over the place for me. Again, that might because I have not read Who Fears Death. I've only begun reading Okorafor in the last month, and this is my third book by her.

Regardless, I cannot wait for the third book in this trilogy to see where this is all going.

I, unfortunately, did not finish this one. I enjoyed She Who Knows but this one just didn't hit the same way. I tried to force myself to finish but I couldn't.

The second in the ‘She Who Knows’ trilogy, ‘One Way Witch’ follows the Najeeba, mother of Onyesonwu, in both the before and the after of the events of ‘Who Fears Death,’ and as such I would strongly recommend that readers read both ‘She Who Knows’ and ‘Who Fears Death’ (which are both fantastic) before reading this. Najeeba makes for a fascinating character, and this novella really explores her life after motherhood, and the impacts trauma have had on her. As a result of this focus on Najeeba, there’s very little focus on plot, and this book felt stagnant at some points, however, this doesn’t prevent it from being an insightful and fascinating read that definitely packed an emotional punch - with prose and world building that continued to stun.

One Way Witch is the sequel that She Who Knows deserves, drawing you further into Najeeba's story and the world of Who Fears Death. I enjoyed Who Fears Death, but I find myself utterly engrossed in Najeeba's novellas. Okorafor's character work is some of the best in the business, creating a Science Fiction stunner in One Way Witch. Okorafor blends Africanfuturistic genre devices and settings with a plot that makes you just want to keep on reading. One of my favourites by Okorafor to date!

This is the sequel to she who knows and set in the same world of who fears death. Like her previous books, this one is well written and uses Nigerian mythology for the story. I’m not really sure how much to say about this one for a summary since it’s a spinoff series and a sequel. Plus it’s so short. I think the most I can say is that I really enjoyed it, the world building was well done and Nnedi Okorafor’s writing is getting better with each book. My only issue is that it’s a novella. I rarely give out 5 stars to novella’s since I want more time with the story and characters.

One Way Witch continues the story of Najeeba, Onyesonwu's mother, as she follow her daughter down the road toward becoming a sorcerers. Okorafor provides a poignant and reflective novella as our beloved navigates self-discovery, love, grief and forgiveness.