War Girls

This was such a good book! I've never read anything like this before and I really loved the author's writing style. I was completely immersed in the plot and I felt all sorts of emotions over the course of the book. I'm really excited to see what else this author comes up with because I'm going to remember this reading experience for a long time. The way the author seamlessly wove factual Nigerian history into the narrative was so well done and it inspired me to research the Nigerian Civil War that took place in the 1960's. The author's note gives a very good explanation of the basics for those who are going into this book with little knowledge of the history behind it, so I highly recommend reading that first if you're confused! ( )

This was a great book about two sisters that are on opposite ends of the Nigerian Civil war. I thought that the concept of the story was fantastic and the world that the characters were in fascinating, but I found myself not getting as attached to the characters in this story about halfway through. And honestly, the first section of the book was fantastic, but after that section, it started to not grip me as much. I thought that it was an interesting book, but I felt that I had to give it three stars due to that. ( )

RGG: Science fiction set in a future Nigeria / Biafra civil war. Powerful fighting scenes, weapon technology doesn't overwhelm the real emotional toal of war on humans. Interesting companion to Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone. Some implicit romance between some of the war girls. Reading Interest: 13-YA.

Listened to audio narrated by Adepero Oduye. While I liked the narator the story itself is challenging to follow in audio format as the story jumps from one group to another.

The year is 2172 set in a civil war in Nigeria. Children are mechanized, body parts replaced with bionic parts and trained to fight in the war using mechs. Neither side is all good or all bad, both claim to be the righteous side of the battle but both sides do horrific things to win the war.

These two girls love each other like sisters but after an attack they are separated, both believing the other is dead. With the girls on either side of the conflict, they are used and manipulated to win for their side of the war until they find out the other is alive and things take a dramatic turn.

The story is set in the future and even though there's mech's and bionics it often has a historic feeling. I understood why after listening to the author's insight at the end of the book. The author gleaned a lot of historic information from the 1969 Nigerian civil war and additional conflicts in Nigeria. Not an easy read, in fact it shows the gritty, ugly side of political war, using the perspectives of both sides as well as the failure of outside countries to act on the atrocities being committed by both sides.

I was expecting a completely different story, but the story I read was well done, I liked it and I think others will like it as well.

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I truly loved this novel. I reread it multiple times. I hate books that in any way deal with war or soldiers but this was so elegantly done.
Be familiar with the Biafran War before you read this. I loved Half of a Yellow Sum by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie so I had a passing familiarity. Even the wikipedia article will be enough but try to understand what happened historically before reading this. ( )