Binti: The Complete Trilogy

It sucks when you hit a reading slump and you know it's not the book's fault but you're still going to remember it for how long it took you to finish. This one felt borderline asymptotical in how the end kept feeling further and further away the more I read it, but I finally got myself over the finish line.

Kinda curious as to why this was originally broken up into a trilogy, but reading it all in one go as a bundled package felt like a natural plot progression rather than three distinct arcs. We have in Binti a young woman who... I don't wanna say she bites off more than she can chew so much as she's just forced to grow up faster than she planned. Lots of different parties are pulling her in separate directions in ways that literally physically change her - sometimes with her consent, sometimes without. Kind of a "Assigned 'Diplomat' by Fate" situation with high stakes should she fail. It was interesting seeing a protagonist give away parts of herself to please others over and over until she reaches a genuine and legitimate identity crisis because she doesn't recognize herself anymore.

This reminded me of Noor, the only other book I've read by this author, in that the plot was serviceable enough but the worldbuilding was what really caught my attention. All the side characters and scenery and offhand descriptions of what was going on in the background was top-notch and this is a setting I could easily see an author dipping back into over and over again. Definitely a distinct take on science fiction we don't see enough of in Western markets.

I'm glad it's over, but I didn't hate my time with it. Maybe just don't try reading something over a long vacation and through a subsequent jet-lagged, week-long illness like I did.