Reddit reviews Who Fears Death

Who Fears Death is an amazing fantasy book that has themes of magic as well as racism and sexism. It's an amazing read!

I love sci-fi and my tops are the Hyperion Cantos, Robert A. Heinlein books (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Time Enough For Love, etc.), Ursula K Le Guin books (Earthsea, which is actually fantasy, Very Far Away From Anything Else, which is actually just fiction, The Dispossessed, Rocannon's World, The Left Hand of Darkness, etc.) and John Varley books (Titan, Wizard, Demon. a trilogy. Millennium, Steel Beach).

I'm currently reading another sci-fi trilogy, Three, Fall of Morningside, Dawnbreaker, which I like a lot. Jay Posey also wrote another sci-fi novel, Outriders, also very good.

I have Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children on my nightstand to read next. Apparently, there's a sequel book, too, so I'll probably read that after.

John Green's books are really good YA fiction. The Fault in our Stars, Finding Alaska, Paper Towns I've read and enjoyed.

Read any Neil Gaiman? I recommend American Gods and Anansi Boys, as well as Good Omens co-written with Terry Pratchett, also the author of many amazing Discworld novels. The books about the witches are the best.

Random other books I've read & enjoyed: Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Pelican Brief, Invitation To The Game, Throne of Glass series, The Invisible Library, The Paper Magician trilogy, The Night Circus, The Shepherd Moon, (Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study) trilogy, The Lost Legends of New Jersey.

Oh and if you like cats a lot like I do, Tails of Wonder and Imagination is a collection of very interesting short stories.

I'm not familiar with books about body image but I don't think that books need to be about body image to make young black kids comfortable with their blackness - just reading about normal, well-written black characters is enough for some kids. (Even seeing a black face on the back of the book or illustrated on the cover is a good thing for young people.) There are a bunch of books out there that address the topic of fitting in and what it's like to be black in America and feel "normal," but those books are usually catered to pre-teens and I don't know enough about them to give any recommendations.

There are a bunch of good books out there by black writers (all of the ones I can think of right now are by women) that have black main characters and convey a positive message (not just about being black) that I think might help. Check out these books and their authors:

• Plain City by Virginia Hamilton
  
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
  
• Mindscape by Andrea Hairston
  
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
  
• Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
  
• Words with Wings by Nikki Grimes

I wish he'd have included some thoughts on other black SF writers instead on concentrating on films. There aren't many besides Butler and Delany, though.

N. K. Jemison (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms) is a new black SF writer that shows promise. Also Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death).