Afia in the Land of Wonders: Book Review

Afia in the Land of Wonders is a middle grade fantasy book written and illustrated by Mia Araujo. It is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and it was published this year, 2025.

The story is about Afia, a sixteen-year-old girl who is dissatisfied with her life at home, a place called Dafra. Her mother and the rest of her family expect her to go through her ewende, which is her coming of age ceremony, and continue their crystal selling business. However, she yearns to explore the world, and wants more for her life. So when a young man named Bakame offers her an escape, she takes her chance and finds herself in the magical land of Ijábù. However, after being warned by a ghost boy named Ojike, she quickly discovers that not everything is as it seems, and she must escape this so-called “land of wonders.”

The Non-Spoiler Review

One thing I like about this book are the illustrations. Most of the images are fully colored and take up a page or two, while others are smaller pencil sketches. All of them are beautiful. Mia Araujo is a talented artist.

I also like the main message of the story, which is that we shouldn’t live in fear, whether it is fear of the unknown or fear of disappointing or angering others by simply trying to be yourself. Instead we should let our curiosity lead us, go outside our comfort zone, and make our own decisions.

The main character, Afia, starts off unsure of herself. Her family, especially her mother, have certain expectations of her and her twin sister Aya. Afia wants to do something different with her life, but her family, including her sister, make it seem like her desire to carve out her own path is selfish.

However, as she goes on her journey, she begins to rediscover her more curious nature, and she becomes braver. She eventually remembers who she is, and decides that she will not let fear control her life anymore.

But while the story’s main message is to make your own path and let your curiosity lead you, it also warns that curiosity without caution is dangerous, and that seeking to fulfill your desires at the expense of others is selfish. 

One thing I appreciated about Afia was that even though she has moments where she is ready to give up, she eventually realizes she has to keep going.

The story was a little exciting, it kept me hooked, and I was eager to see how it would end.

However, one of the complaints I have for the story is that the climax and the ending felt a little rushed and a little anticlimactic. The way the conflict was resolved was a little confusing, because things were wrapped up almost too easily. Also, there is an epilogue involving a time-skip, and although it ends on a hopeful note, I feel like it was lacking in certain details. I would have liked the epilogue to be more specific on just how much time has passed at the very least.

Also, while part of the story is about how Afia grows to be more brave and independent, there aren’t really a lot of moments where she’s given the chance to do things on her own. Even in the climax, she gets some unexpected help.

On the whole, the book is good, but I can’t help but feel like something is missing.

Content Warning: There is a scene in the book where someone gets beheaded, and blood spattering on the ground is mentioned. Also, someone holds the head, and some men bury the decapitated body. So, if you don’t want your child reading that part, here’s a warning. The scene is in Chapter 13, page 124-125.

There is also a scene where Afia finds a room where courtiers are lazily lying around on pillows, and it’s apparent that they’re all drugged somehow. Afia accidentally finds two courtiers “entwined” beneath some pillows, but nothing graphic is mentioned.

The Spoiler Review

As I said before, the book was good, but the climax and ending were rushed.

To try to give a brief recap, Afia meets a carver named Bakame, who takes her to Queen Ukiwa’s palace in the magical land of Ijábù. At first, Afia is happy to be with Queen Ukiwa, because she seems nice. But this story is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and this queen is inspired by the Red Queen. The Queen even wears a dress made of red flowers. So of course, Afia eventually discovers that the Queen beheads anyone who doesn’t obey her. Also, the Queen is a sorceress who turns some of her courtiers into animals against their will. 

Afia realizes that Bakame took her to the Queen knowing good and well that the Queen was a murderer, and that he hadn’t been honest with her.

Sickened by the Queen’s actions, Afia flees the castle and tries to escape Ijábù, all while Bakame and the Queen’s guards are on her tail.

Afia goes on a journey with Ojike, a ghost boy with a cat mask (inspired by the Cheshire Cat), to find Sékou the Shaman. During this journey, Afia eventually finds her courage, and after speaking with the shaman, she remembers who she is. But then she gets captured by the Queen’s guards and is forced to stand trial before Queen Ukiwa.

In the climax, the Queen gives Afia a choice: either become her courtier and be forced to be transformed into an animal every now and then, or be beheaded.

Afia refuses to become the queen’s courtier. Instead, she tells the courtiers and other people in the throne room that the queen doesn’t care about them, and that they don’t have to do what she says. She tells them that the only person the queen ever cared about was her sister (The queen had tried to make a magnificent kingdom with the hopes that her sister would return).

This act of bravery, along with her other acts of bravery throughout the book inspires Bakame to finally fight back by removing the talismans from the castle door. This allows Ojike and the other spirits of the people the Queen executed to rush in and scare most of the guards and courtiers away, leaving the Queen and the King helpless. The queen can no longer boss people around.

However, as soon as the Ojike and the other ghosts chase everyone out of the castle, suddenly most people, the queen’s guards, the courtiers, and other people are happy and get along. Some guards help some Sonu people and courtiers escape the garden. Some other courtiers go back inside the palace and bring out instruments and hand them out to people, so that they can play music and dance to celebrate their newfound freedom.

Moments earlier, none of the courtiers were willing to stand up to the queen moments earlier. When Afia told them that the queen never cared about them, this doesn’t persuade them to immediately turn on the queen, and there are even a few people who shout in protest to what Afia says.

Most people are afraid of the Queen, because they know she can have them executed at any time. Almost no one wants to be on the Queen’s bad side. There are even some people who were kicked out by the queen who yearned to be accepted back into her palace, so much so that they don’t help Afia in fear of losing their chance to get back in the Queen’s favor. The fallout was too fast and too brief given that there were so many people who used to be loyal to Queen Ukiwa.

The queen and king are never formally punished for murdering people. Bakame is never formally punished for tricking people into going to the Queen and leading who knows how many people to their executions. The king and queen are simply left alone, and Bakame is given more grace just because he helped once in the end, even though he is the reason Afia was nearly executed by the Queen in the first place.

I understand the message the book is sending. As everyone is running out of the palace because of the ghosts, the queen demands people not to leave. Of course, she is ignored and is left alone in her throne room. Despite trying so hard to control everyone around her so that she won’t be alone, despite trying so hard to lure her sister back, she fails. 

This shows that you can’t force people to love you or stay with you, and it isn’t healthy to attempt to do so. Loving someone means being willing to let go, and it means allowing them to be their own person and make their own decisions. Attempting to control other people only ruins what could have been a good relationship. It only leaves you alone.

In a way, being alone is the Queen’s true punishment.

However, she murdered people, so a harsher punishment would have been appropriate. But no one is interested in carrying out justice at the moment. Everyone is simply happy to be free.

As for Bakame, he admits that he has “much to atone for,” but it isn’t clear what he intends to do to right his wrongs (p. 276). What could he do to atone for what he did, since some of the people he took to the Queen are already dead?

In the last chapter, Afia sets off on her own only to be joined by a family she met back in Ijábù. They all set off on their journey together. But in the Epilogue, there is a time skip. Afia goes back to Dafra by herself on a market day to see her sister, but the Ijábù family that she was traveling with by the end of the last chapter is not mentioned again. So, Afia parted ways with them at some point, but we don’t know when, where, or why. I would have liked to know what had happened to them, since the author decided to have them go with Afia on her journey to explore a part of the world.

Also, the epilogue isn’t clear how much time has passed. We don’t get any description on how Afia looks now, or what she’s wearing, or how old she is currently. It seems many years passed, but the only hint we get to the passage of time is that she sees Aya at the crystal stand instead of their mother Thema. However, we never know what happened to Afia’s mother, father, or grandmother. Did they die of old age? If not, then where are they?

Then there is another story element that was forgotten for the book only to be brought up last minute. Earlier in the story, Bakame gives Afia a carved gazelle as a gift when he asks her to go with him outside of Dafra. Later, when Afia and Aya are in their bedroom, Afia sifts through her bag and the carved gazelle falls out. This starts an argument between the twins, because Aya doesn’t want Afia to leave Dafra or go with Bakame. Afia promises she won’t leave, and Aya is satisfied. We’re never told what Afia did with that wooden gazelle, or where she put it.

However, in the epilogue, we are told Afia sees that Aya had kept the gazelle figure she had left behind.

Again, nowhere in the book does it mention that Afia left the gazelle figure at home before leaving Dafra. A few sentences explaining that she left her trinket on the nightstand or maybe beneath her bed could have cleared things up a little bit.

A Couple of Things I Enjoyed

The story has an interesting little twist. Before meeting the shaman, Ojike tells Afia that the queen is a sorceress, and she has put a spell on everyone in her kingdom, making them slaves to her will. He needs Afia to help him go to the Shaman to ask him how to break the curse.

However, when Ojike asks the Shaman how to break the queen’s spell, the Shaman informs them that there was no spell at all. Everyone was staying in Ijábù and pining for the queen’s good standing of their own free will, including Ojike’s brother Bakame.

I wasn’t expecting this reveal, but it makes sense for the story’s theme. The message is that you mustn’t live in fear, and instead carve out your own path. However, at the end of the day, no one can make that decision for you.

One thing I was especially happy to see in this story was that Afia did not go back home right away. She decides she must forge her own path and go explore the world. I appreciated that part of the story, because some other stories would have the child go back to their toxic family so that everyone can reconcile immediately and all is well (I feel like Encanto suffered from this kind of ending).

I’m not sure if this was the author’s intent, but one message that could be gleaned from this story is that it’s best to distance yourself from toxic people. Afia’s mother fits this category. She is extremely rude to Afia in most of their interactions, and she doesn’t want to give Afia a choice in what to do with her life. Thema is such a toxic parent, that when Afia considers leaving Dafra, her sister warns her not to tell their mother. They both know Thema would feel betrayed and disown her if she felt Afia was being “disloyal.”

In Afia’s home, wanting to leave is seen as an act of rebellion rather than a youth’s natural desire for independence.

As a result of this stifling family life, Afia runs off. It is dangerous, but understandable.

Even after going through a harrowing experience, Afia realizes she can’t go home yet, and that she should do what she had always wanted to do. She has overcome the obstacles and has become more brave and independent now. That was great to see.

In the epilogue, it’s implied that she doesn’t return to Dafra until she is an adult. She finds that the crystal stand that her mother used to run is now run by her sister, Aya. When she sees Aya, she realizes she has nothing to fear, indicating that they will reconcile. It was nice that Afia did eventually see her sister again, and now they will probably be on better terms.

Another message is that while it’s great to be curious, one should be careful about their actions because they may hurt themselves or others if they’re not.

Afia realizes that she trusted the wrong person and should have been more careful, but now she must escape an evil queen as a result of her naivety.

Bakame realizes too late that his selfish actions are part of the reason why his brother was harmed by the queen, and he regrets tricking Afia to go to the kingdom, and he fears she will be executed.

While Afia feels like her decision to leave is selfish at times, she realizes that while it came off as selfish to her family, it really wasn’t. Her life is in her hands, and she has to make her own choices in the end.

More Thoughts on Afia and Her Family

Afia is naive to quickly trust a stranger, and she quickly realizes her mistake later. However, I can see why she was naive enough to do so. Her family, especially her mother, are set in their ways, and her mother can be quite mean. In all of the interactions I read between Afia and her mother so far, none of them were positive.

During dinner, the night before the ewende, Afia tells her mother, Thema, that she doesn’t want to do the ceremony or sell crystals for her whole life.

Her mother responds with anger, saying that she worked hard to turn the crystal mine into a thriving business. 

“All you have to do tomorrow is inherit it and avoid running it into the ground. You can do that, can’t you? (p. 31)” she continues to say, “Your sister understands what it means to be obedient and grateful. I think those are admirable traits. But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe a sixteen-year-old knows better.”

Afia reluctantly says that she will do the ceremony, only for her mother to scoff and say, “As if you had a choice.” Thema then proceeds to ignore Afia for the rest of the dinner, and makes it a point to address everyone else by name but her (p. 33).

I was angry at Thema for such rude and childish parenting. In Afia’s family, wanting to do something different with your life or having a different opinion is seen as betraying the family. 

However, a loving parent would never treat their child so coldly for simply wanting to do something different with their life. They would allow their child to try out new things, gain independence, and carve out their own path.

But her mother is so set in her ways, she doesn’t seem to notice or care just how much her mistreatment of Afia is hurting her. This is part of the reason why it was easy for Bakame to convince Afia to go with him. Her mother as well as the rest of the family don’t create a healthy space for Afia to express herself and to make her own decisions.

She doesn’t feel like her family appreciates her for who she truly is, because honestly, they don’t (at least her mother doesn’t). Her family didn’t realize it, but they essentially pushed Afia away.

Afia’s mother criticizes her all the time, and Aya only wants to follow in their mother’s footsteps and wants Afia to do the same. So when Bakame compliments her and tells her what she wants to hear, Afia feels like she’s getting the confirmation and understanding she rarely got from her own family.

So when Afia runs away from home and follows Bakame to Ijábù, I couldn’t help but be a little happy, even though I knew something was going to go wrong later. I simply wanted Afia to escape her horrible mother.

While Afia is mostly happy about leaving in the beginning, she does miss her family, and she misses her twin sister Aya. She feels guilty for leaving her and later feels regret when she discovers that the queen is evil. At some point, she decides she needs to go home, and that she was foolish for leaving Dafra in the first place. 

After having a quarrel with Ojike about him not being completely honest about something, she storms off and wanders the woods alone. When she is at her lowest moment, she remembers her father saying, “There’s nothing wrong with having a good cry, unless that’s all you intend to do (p. 232).”

With these words in mind, she keeps going and eventually finds her way to the Shaman by following animal tracks and the ghosts that suddenly appear to lead her way.

But speaking of Afia’s father, Ime, he is not a very good parent either.

Afia feels her father was a “quiet champion” of her curiosity, because he always answered her questions and tried to soften her mother’s criticisms (p. 232). According to the book, “Afia saw his strength more clearly now (p. 232).”

However, I personally don’t feel like her father was very strong at all. At the end of the day, despite her father’s “strength”, Afia was still disconnected with her family, mainly because of her mother’s stubbornness and immature parenting. 

As a parent, Afia’s father should have stood up to Thema. He should have told Thema to stop mistreating Afia and her sister.

But he never did.

In the dinner scene I mentioned earlier, Ime responds to Thema’s harsh words to Afia by saying, “Come now… ‘Together we thrive, alone we perish.’”

Of course, Thema ignores him, and this statement doesn’t help Afia in the slightest.

The statement he makes is the most non-confrontational statement he could think of in a weak attempt to defend his daughter. It doesn’t address the core issue at hand. Afia doesn’t want to mine or sell crystals, but the issue is that Thema deems Afia’s desire to do something else with her life as a threat to the family and perhaps an attack on her parenting. It’s an attack on her pride.

However, Ime doesn’t care enough to address that issue head on. He doesn’t create that safe space for his daughters to communicate without fear of being scolded or even teased.

Furthermore, while Thema is making a point to ignore Afia at the dinner table, Afia’s father just makes conversation as if nothing happened, which doesn’t solve anything. 

Ime may not be mean to Afia, but he isn’t extremely helpful either. He strikes me as being a cowardly, conflict-avoidant, enabler parent. He tries to help his daughter but he also tries to avoid conflict with his wife. However, he can’t have his cake and eat it too. This is evident by the fact that Afia can’t truly be herself with her family and that she knows she has no choice but to leave.

This may seem harsh, but while Afia seems to have some admiration for her father, it may not be completely warranted. At the end of the day, the enabler parent is just as much to blame for the toxic state of a family as the more narcissistic parent.

For clarification, I’m not saying Thema is a Narcissist. She probably isn’t one. However, she does guilt trip her daughters. She seemingly uses fear and criticism to get them to do as she says, which is a narcissistic trait. She also gives Afia the cold shoulder at dinner. Giving someone the silent treatment as punishment for challenging them in any way is something a narcissist would do.

Though I don’t think Afia’s admiration of her father is entirely warranted, it isn’t surprising. It is common for the child to have more grace for the enabler parent because they are the “safer parent.” So with that in mind, it makes sense that Afia feels like her father was “the champion of her curiosity.”

Anyway, Afia eventually finds Sékou the Shaman, who is a reference to the hookah-smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. He asks, “Who are you?”

It takes Afia a while to figure it out. After doing some self-reflection, she realizes that she let fear bury her curious and adventurous self for too long.

She also remembers a time when her mother had taken her and Aya to the crystal mines. Afia had wandered off and got lost, and when she was found, Aya cried and promised never to lose her again, “but [Aya] had borne her mother’s blame ever since. Aya had given up her own childhood to become Afia’s protector (p. 241).” 

Again, this shows how much pressure Thema put on her two daughters. Despite being twins, Aya is treated like she is the older sibling in the family, so she must be the responsible and mature one. It’s pretty sad to think about how much stress was put on her and Afia (Aya is starting to sound a lot like Louisa from Encanto now, but also a little like Isabella because Afia sees her as being the perfect one).

What Afia says to the shaman sort of reminds me of Moana’s revelation in the first Moana movie:

“I am Afia of Dafra. I used to let my curiosity lead me, before it was replaced by fear. Perhaps I will again.”

I like that Afia finally decides not to let fear control her life anymore. This decision becomes vital when she is forced to stand trial before Queen Ukiwa. She does what she probably wouldn’t have been able to do in the beginning of the story; she stands up for herself, even when faced with death. That takes courage and bravery, and it inspires change.

I also love that when the queen tells Afia that she can never repair what she has done by leaving her sister behind, Afia says, “If she’s the person I know, then someday she will understand how hard it was for me to leave. After she sifts through the pain, only one fact will remain—that I love her, and I always will.”

Final Thoughts

Again, I enjoyed the book overall. A couple of the side characters have interesting backstories and goals, the story kept me interested, the artwork is amazing, and Afia is an interesting protagonist. But the ending was rushed and muddled. I would have liked it if the pacing was slowed down a little more. 

The story left me with a couple of questions I would have liked answered. For example, what happened to the Sonu family that Afia was traveling with for a time? Or where did Afia go after leaving the Land of Wonders? Or what happened to the queen in the very end? What happened to Afia’s family? Did her parents and grandmother die of old age?

I was left wanting more, but this book isn’t part of a series, so the ending was it. I would give this book between 4 stars.