It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places.

And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?

I could start any number of reviews with this exact same sentiment, but goddamn, it’s been way too long since I read the first Binti book! In between then & now, it was actually announced that Binti is being adapted for a HULU show, with Nnedi Okarafor herself, along with some folks that worked on Watchmen, developing the show! So that’s some awesome news, and I can’t honestly wait to see this world adapted to the screen!

Home picks up around a year after the events of Binti, and while things have seemingly gone well for Binti at Oomza University, she is clearly very traumatized by the Meduse attack aboard the Third Fish. She’s increasingly relying on her mathematical meditation to get her through the PTSD, as she goes through a series of emotional & physiological changes. Additionally, her deepening friendship with Okwu is a big factor in her life, and provides some truly wacky & funny moments in the book!

As evidenced by the title, the second installment of this series sees Binti return home, where she hopes to rest, heal, and make an important pilgrimage with her people. But things take a treacherous turn, and Binti finds herself discovering more about her & her family than she bargained for.

As much as I enjoyed the first book, I think Home is even better. Oof…I flew through this (I mean, yeah, it’s pretty short anyway!) and felt completely transported to Binti’s world. Okorafor’s writing is gorgeous & incredibly evocative. There’s a bit of a spooky element to this one as well, something I didn’t necessarily see coming, but was definitely enjoying!

There’s a lot going on in these little novellas, but at the heart of it is Binti, trying to figure out who she is, who she wants to be, and how to get there. How to live her own life, and find her own unique path, while still honoring her culture & family.

This one SUPER ends on a cliffhanger, so I’m gonna make a point to get to The Night Masquerade sooner rather than later! Nnedi Okorafor has created such a compelling & timeless protagonist in Binti…I think I said something similar in my review for the first book, but reading these books gives me the feeling that I’m reading something people will be reading & recommending for generations. Binti: Home is everything you could want out of a sequel…it expands on the worldbuilding from the first book, takes a much deeper dive into character development, and sets up the third book in a really spectacular way!