book review : daughters of nri

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Genre: Fantasy

Suits the reading age: 13+

Rating: 7/10

If you like these books: Children of Blood and Bone, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Twilight, Hunger Games

In the first instalment of 'The Return of The Earth Mother' series, we are subjugated to the aristocratic regime of the Eze, the ruler of the Kingdom of Nri. We navigate the history of the kingdom and its lingering effects through the lenses of estranged twins Esinaala and Sinaikuku, who embark on a journey of self discovery. Throughout the book we engage in the lives of both girls from different settings, allowing two separate stories to become one.

Being a work of fantasy, the book explores ancient African mythology complimented by the tribal languages of Nigeria, most commonly, Igbo. Although, there is no mention of Nigeria as a country, the Kingdom of Nri is a region within Nigeria prior to its colonial establishment. The author of the series, Reni K Amayo, is in fact of Nigerian descent and therefore has tried to 'reimagine a Nigeria untouched by the scars of colonialism'.

The overarching theme of spirituality presents questions on power, justice and most importantly family. Amayo manages to immerse these themes throughout the entirety of the book successfully. The character development is especially strong amongst the two main characters, Esinaala and Sinaikuku, where we see a coming of age theme recur. However, I would've loved to have seen a bit more character and relationship development distributed amongst the supporting characters such as Eni and Ina, who also seemingly had interesting backgrounds. Nevertheless, being the first instalment of the series allows room for these stories to grow and maybe this decision was intentional, to keep us yearning for more.

The plot development is arguably the best aspect of this book. Amayo has truly mastered the art of never quite giving us enough. I like to read my books chapter to chapter but I often found myself glued to the story as the chapter breaks always left me wanting to discover more. The two setting narrative also helped with this anticipation as it constantly diverted our attention, often during very intense or emotional scenes to another part of the story. That feeling of needing to reach the point of the story where everything makes sense stays with you until the very last page and for that reason the Daughters of Nri, a 300+ page book becomes an extremely quick read.


Buy it here: https://amzn.to/3e0gMwO

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