Akata Witch (5 points)

 I can say for a fact I was never a fan of Harry Potter. I loved magic and all sorts of fantasy, but I always regarded Harry Potter as, well, trash. I know Rowling was the first to do a lot of things, but she was way over-glorified for my liking. Praised as a female writer, and promoter of women, yet stars a male child who's story is just a copy of old Greeco-Roman myths. Love triangle and drama, it was clearly meant for children with no idea what life is like. Even if magic were real, it paints a very perfect image of how cleanly things are tied up. So, if I hated Harry Potter this much, what did I think Akata Witch had to offer? If I could have ever got off the "this is just Harry Potter" part I would have seen the other stuff sooner. It had unique aspects, juju instead of mana, rituals, sacrifices, murder mystery, racial and gender discrimination. And was I impressed? Unfortunately, not at all. Reimagining your own magic system is a feat in itself, but when some of the terms are just interchangeable (Like I said, "mana" = "juju") which may be culturally appropriate, but why not go a step further? The plot didn't make a lot of sense to me. Not that I didn't understand what was happening, but I didn't understand why the author chose to go this way. One thing I did like, in HP the big bad guy is this all-powerful ender of worlds that one teenager just blasts away, where 200 super-powerful other wizards couldn't. But in this story, the target is more reasonable. Not that I am saying it's normal for a bunch of teens to chase down a serial killer, but it was one dude, and was not someone with god-like power. Toning down the antagonist might seem like a bad idea, but when it makes it more reasonable, it can make your story much more believable. 

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