Just Cruisin

Not worth reading at all. I read this for my high school project and was genuinely interested, as the first couple pages seemed promising, only to be met up with disappointment and regret of having ever opened this book. Let me start off by saying that If I could I would most definitely leave 0 stars because of how ridiculously incoherent it is. The plot isn’t well developed, there are multiple loopholes, things seem to be thrown in or happen without any reason or prior hinting towards happening. For example: Binti and Mwinyi kissing when they’ve only known each other for a couple days, Binti is racist towards their kind as she was brought up in a family who hates desert people as he is. She’s also known Okwu and Dele for way longer than Mwinyi and they are by far more potential relationship material. I don’t care that she ended up with Mwinyi, I just wish the author would’ve hinted towards this a lot earlier as it feels so rushed and came out so abruptly out of the nowhere. It almost feels as if the author only added them kissing and falling in love because she figured it was almost the end of the book and she thought Binti needed a love interest. It just makes no sense at all. What also doesn’t make sense is how Binti’s mom is Himba and married a man who she’s still with and lives happily with who she knows is a desert person. The thing is, they both carry heavy prejudices towards desert people and Binti and her siblings are all part desert people and Himba as well. Apart from this the characters are all very boring, simple, not relatable and carry NO important role other than to simply exist for a couple chapters only to be forgotten in the next. The only important characters in the story are probably Binti and Okwu as everyone else is forgotten and not mentioned for chapters on end. There’s no character development. ): Not even Binti has much character development and it upsets me so much. Binti is so hard to relate to. She’s ungrateful, selfish and extremely reckless. When she left her home and village knowing she would be ostracized I actually applauded her because I admired her bravery and independence-driven nature but after seeing how the rest of the book is just her dealing with PTSD, crying, screaming and pointing fingers at everyone else instead herself is not admirable or entertaining. It’s for lack of a better term, annoying. I don’t recommend for anyone to read this book. It seriously lacks a lot of common sense. Someone should’ve proof read this book before publishing it. Other things that make no sense to me are all the killings/murders with no future explanation of it. Example: When Binti arrives at Oomza Uni and tells everyone she witnessed the murder of 498 Khoush (their own kind) and they don’t address it at all. It all makes no sense. TL;DR: Binti is a character who lacks a lot of character development and needs to be re-written. The book has no important characters who contribute any further to the story. There’s a lot of loop holes within the book. Things aren’t addressed, happen without any reason, have nothing hinting towards it’s arrival or afterwards explanation. Very confusing and hard to follow.