Review: War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.

I feel like the star fairy here, I want to give all the stars for this book.

Having been, up until this book, completely ignorant of the fact that there was a Nigerian civil war in the 1960s, I don't feel qualified to address the commentary this book is absolutely steeped in. I will, however, say that I *get* it. Even not knowing a damn thing about the war, I completely *get* what the author was arguing, what he was condemning, and what he was honoring.

The story was engrossing. I read 400+ pages in the span of two and a half days. I was surprised and not surprised yesterday when I looked down at the page number I was reading and realized I'd just read 200 pages. I was sucked in immediately by Onyii and Ify, by the attack on their compound, and by everything they suffered in the years after. The relationship between them and everything that worked to tear them apart, it was exciting and horrible and absolutely devastating. The idea that maybe everything they went through later could have been avoided if Onyii had made a different decision as a child, or maybe it would have been just as bad but in a different way... There are so many ways the story could have gone, and I'm blown away by the direction it did take.

Everyone do yourselves a favor and read this book. If you love science fiction, if you love a gripping story, if you love fantastic writing, then go read this book.

Thank you to Bookish First and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

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