Reviews

After the Rain by Nnedi Okorafor

Only show reviews with written explanations

zhollows's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sabesaw's review against another edition

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2.0

I love the concept, but the execution was poor. The art style, while interesting and fitting for the story wasn't really my cup of tea. The backgrounds behind the panels were distracting and at times confuse me. The art also wasn't consistent. The MC often looked completely different page to page and panel to panel. I know expressions change people's faces and look, but this was too much.

While I enjoyed the story itself the art often wasn't consistent with the actual story (more inconsistencies!). There were way too many times when the words said one thing and the art showed something different. It was very distracting and pulled me out of the story. With that being stead I did enjoy how well the art fit the story and while not my cup of tea I did enjoy some of the art.

I imagine the short story is a better read and will seek that out. I was really hoping to enjoy this more, but forced myself to finish because I love Okorafor's work so much. Great story, poor art choices.

ree_anna's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

etherealsilver's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

agnesjlopez's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

timinbc's review

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4.0

I got a full colour copy, so no issues there.

For old-white-guy readers like me, this is yet another of the brain-stretchers of which there have been so many lately as publishing finally starts to open up to all the writers of the world. Okorafor has done some of the heavy lifting in that process.

So, Chicago cop visits her family in Nigeria, and magic happens, and she doesn't know what to do. If I understood the book right, she opens up to her heritage and its magic, and they engage with her murky past. She makes it out the other side as a Nigamerican, with two sources of strength.

Too many graphic novels overdo the actual ink-on-page darkness and violence so much it's hard to tell what the hell is happening. Even at its densest, this one doesn't do that. There's plenty of What-the? but it is resolved each time and we can move on.

Gotta find the short story and see how they compare.