--- title: Akata Witch: 100 Best Fantasy Books description: Find out why Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor is on TIME's list of the best fantasy books of all time canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898517/akata-witch/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-10-14T19:33:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:42:48.722Z og:title: 'Akata Witch' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898517/akata-witch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt480be7ecc3de2759/698a132c86f68e04686ef4c0/Akata-Witch-Nnedi-Okorafor-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Akata Witch' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Akata Witch' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt480be7ecc3de2759/698a132c86f68e04686ef4c0/Akata-Witch-Nnedi-Okorafor-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 14, 2020 # Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Born in New York to Nigerian parents, 12-year-old Sunny follows her family back to their home country, where she finds it hard to fit in. Not only is she treated like a foreigner, but she is albino and ostracized at school for her differences. Until, that is, she falls in with a new group of friends who are descended from Leopard People, mysterious practitioners of old magic tied to ancient African religions. In the world of the Leopard People, Sunny’s albinism is a portent of great power, but first she has to learn how to wield it. _Akata Witch_ (retitled _What Sunny Saw in the Flames_ in Nigeria and the U.K. due to the derogatory meaning of ‘akata’ in some Nigerian dialects) is the first in a trilogy by Hugo and Nebula award-winning Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor. Okorafor’s novels tend to reflect both her West-African heritage and American experiences, but in this series she creates a stunningly original world of African magic that draws on Nigerian folk beliefs and rituals instead of relying on the predictable tropes of Western fantasy novels. —_Aryn Baker_ **Buy Now**: _Akata Witch_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780670011964) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3db3b2Z) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898517/akata-witch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898517/akata-witch/"},"headline":"'Akata Witch' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books","datePublished":"2020-10-14T19:33:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:42:48.722Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898517/akata-witch/","keywords":["Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt480be7ecc3de2759/698a132c86f68e04686ef4c0/Akata-Witch-Nnedi-Okorafor-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt480be7ecc3de2759/698a132c86f68e04686ef4c0/Akata-Witch-Nnedi-Okorafor-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898517/akata-witch/","name":"'Akata Witch' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books"}}]}] ```