Daughters of Oduma

 Tell me a story... about fighting for your family

Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi 

Publication date: February 7, 2023

Date read: July 30, 2023

Eat. Dance. Fight. This is the life of the girls who compete in the Isle’s elite, all-female fighting sport of Bowing. But it isn’t really Dirt’s life anymore. At sixteen, she is old and has retired from competition. Instead, she spends her days coaching the younger sisters of the Mud Fam and dreading her fast-approaching birthday, when she’ll have to leave her sisters to fulfill whatever destiny the Gods choose for her. Dirt’s young sisters are coming along nicely, and the Mud Fam is sure to win the upcoming South God Bow tournament, which is the tiny Fam needs the new recruits that come with victory. Then an attack from a powerful rival leaves the Mud without their top Bower, and Dirt is the only one who can compete in the tournament. But Dirt is old, out of shape, and afraid. She has never wanted to be a leader. Victory seems impossible—yet defeat would mean the end of her beloved Fam. And no way is Dirt going to let that happen. 

I found this book difficult to get into at first. It throws the reader into a world with no context as to why it is the way it is, and the language - while English - is inflected in a way that does not flow very well at first when reading it on the page. (I think that this book would actually work really well as an audiobook, and I'm kind of sad that I didn't read it in that format). 

The setting is also very different from our world, but not in an apocalyptic way - just in an almost ancient tribal fashion. The Fams - Mud, Vine, Creek, Sand, and Rock - as well as those who don't fight in the tournaments, like the Butterfly girls and Flagga boys, all seem a normal way of life for them even though they don't resemble anything about our own. Because we were just thrown in to this world, it did feel a little odd for me at first, but it eventually begins to seem normal within the context of the story. 

I really loved that this society revolved around fighting in a way almost similar to Japanese Sumo - fights are performed for pride, honor, and ritual, and the most respect in each Fam is given to the best and oldest fighter. Also, only females can be fighters, and the word "fat" is used as a complement - almost an honorific - and only the fattest fighters were capable of being the best. It's a very unique way of looking at things and I think a really interesting world for teen girls to read about. 

This is not a book that I would recommend to everyone, simply because the world-building and unique speech patterns make for a difficult book to get into, but I think it's a really good story that teen girls especially would like. Plus, there is enough violence and fighting to interest some teen boys as well. 

Rating: 4 stars

Content warning: graphic injury/spinal injury

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.