Trigger warnings: Racism, prejudice, microaggressions, PTSD, trauma
Synopsis: 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 abandoned her family in the dawn of a new day.
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?
Review: While Binti had more action than Binti: Home, the second book is just as filling in content. In Binti: Home, we follow Binti as she heads back to Earth to see her family and go on a sacred pilgrimage. One thing the second book does extremely well is how trauma is handled. Binti is still shaken by the events from the first book, but she doesn't let that slow her down. We see as she navigates through PTSD flashbacks. One way I related to Binti was how she does math equations to refocus herself. Awhile back, a friend asked how people deal with anxiety, and I mentioned that I practice Spanish and Japanese in my head when I start to feel overwhelmed. Seeing Binti do this with math was refreshing, and it made me feel a little less alone with how my brain works.
Probably my favorite element of this book was seeing Binti interact with her family. Her family has complicated feelings about Binti going to Oomza University. A lot of her family says very unkind things to her and it clearly hurt. We get to see firsthand how Binti's culture clashes with her desires at the university. We get to see Binti acknowledge her own prejudice when she interacts with those she calls "Desert People." She has to go through great personal growth to move past her own judgement and really understand these people she knows so little about.
Beautiful second book to this sci-fi trilogy, and I loved seeing Binti interact with people back on Earth.
5 howls
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