War Girls: War is hell

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

Onyii is a battle-hardened soldier, weary of war.

She’s 15.

Her adopted sister, Ify, is even younger and a budding tech genius. The two live in a rebel compound of Biafran girls, hidden by a signal dampener from the Nigerian government. Tochi Onyebuchi gives the reader a little quiet time in the camp, to meet the characters and learn about the technologies they use — and then the camp is discovered, and a riveting battle scene begins. Onyii and Ify are separated, swept apart into two very different lives on opposite sides of the war, each believing the other dead. They will meet again four years later, as enemies.

War Girls (2019) is based on the real-life Nigerian Civil War, but moved forward into the 22^nd century. There are cybernetic body enhancements, maglev cars, and giant battle mech suits. But one thing never changes: war is hell. Onyebuchi skillfully explores the way war changes the people who fight in it: the way people dehumanize the other side, the fact that even people with admirable goals might still resort to unethical means to achieve them, and especially, the effects of the war on the child soldiers expected to be war machines when they’re really just kids.

War machines in the literal sense, in this case, because some end up with bodies more mechanical than human. Their minds and hearts are still human, though, and it’s bittersweet but beautiful to see how love, in various forms, still asserts itself among these young people who have been shown so little of it.

This is pretty heavy stuff for YA, but I’d say that older teens who can handle books like The Hunger Games can probably take War Girls too — though its grounding in real-world events makes it harder to detach from.

There are a few places late in the book where the narrative logic seems a bit shaky. This is particularly the case with [highlight here to view spoiler] the girls’ rescue by Xifeng; I was left wondering both how she physically managed it, and how she happened to be there at that exact moment in the first place.  This feels like a deus ex machina, and I reread the scene a few times to make sure I hadn’t missed something.

Overall, though, War Girls is an excellent book, both exciting and thought-provoking. There are intense battle scenes and lots of cool tech, and in between all that, you’ll also find complex relationships and heroic sacrifice, and learn about a period in history that isn’t often taught in school. A sequel, Rebel Sisters, will be released in October 2020, and I’m eager to read it, but War Girls is self-contained enough to stand alone. Definitely read Onyebuchi’s Author’s Note at the end, which further explains the background and suggests some more good books to read. War Girls is a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel.