Goldenborn, the first book in debut author Ama Ofosua Lieb’s new YA series, has a premise that’s hard to beat. It’s a little near-future science fiction, a little urban fantasy, a little West African folklore, and a little romance. At seventeen, no one expects Akoma Addo to be a detective, but she has earned her title. Although her badge says San Francisco Police Department, she’s secretly an agent for the International Magical Crime Alliance Group, or InterMag for short. They investigate mysterious events for magical activity and conduct research to categorize supernatural phenomena. She was recruited after her father experienced a supernatural event the year before that left him in a coma. Akoma loves her job, has a good group of friends, and loves living with her doting grandmother, Esi. But it all comes crashing down when a sting operation goes sideways.
InterMag catches billionaire Mr. Webb buying a stolen Ghanaian mask with Adinkra symbols carved into it off the black market. But that mask is more than what it appears and Webb isn’t who he seems. Neither are the Addos, as Akoma learns first hand. Lieb deftly jumps in close third person POV between young adults Akoma and Ashon, as well as Esi. As InterMage investigates a string of murders where the corpses are surrounded by molten gold and Akoma digs into who or what may have caused the incident with her father, Esi tries to figure out who is killing Mages. Meanwhile Ashon, a vampire with iron teeth, helps his tricksy boss enact their plan to maneuver Akoma right where they want her.
The book’s cover copy makes it sound like the book is about Anansi the spider god making her a deal: “help him catch a killer and awaken the ancestral magic buried deep in her blood… and in return, he’ll give her a chance to bring her father back.” Trouble is, this “impossible offer” isn’t what the story is about; this event takes place near the end of the book. Akoma spends most of her story going on dates with Xander—“the new guy in town with secrets of his own” whose secrets are revealed fairly soon after they meet—and hanging out with her friends. I don’t say this as disapproval. I thoroughly enjoyed how the story ended up being more slice-of-life than I anticipated going in. Akoma is a teenager with a playful personality who I loved spending time with. Her budding romance with Xander has a soft, sweet start that puts them on equal footing. Neither wants more than the other is willing to give, and both find value in getting to know each other as friends before diving into anything more intense.
The one issue I had with Akoma’s story is that for someone who is supposed to be a crack investigator with a keen eye for observation, she misses a lot of very obvious clues. Sometimes she looks into leads connected to her father’s case, and sometimes InterMage sends her to a crime scene. However, most of what propels the investigations forward come not from analyzing clues but from people, usually adults, telling her everything she needs to know exactly when she needs to know it. That said, I’m glad teen readers get a protagonist who feels realistic and flawed. She has a good group of friends, and her romance feels true to how many teens date, as opposed to the instant high heat and life-or-death emotions common in contemporary romantasy. Akoma is such a fun character, but I wish she used her skills more and had more independence and agency.
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Goldenborn
For me, there were several aspects of the worldbuilding that held the story back, and all of them came down to one root cause: San Francisco. A decade or so before the events of this book, the entire city was leveled in an earthquake, all but the district of AfricaTown. In reality, we have rigorous seismic restrictions, and many buildings have undergone retrofitting, especially after the damage caused by the 1989 earthquake. The 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed 80% of the city, but circumstances are very different today. An earthquake massive enough to level the entire city save one magically-protected district would also destroy much of the rest of the Bay Area, including Silicon Valley. This would almost certainly collapse the world’s fourth largest economy overnight, not to mention cause global economic instability. The city-destroying earthquake is treated like a small thing in the book, but thinking about it threw me out of the story.
Beyond the quake, I’m hard-pressed for a reason why this book had to take place in San Francisco rather than, say, a fictional Bay Area town. Lieb gives few geographic markers to place AfricaTown; the only other locations mentioned by Akoma are tourist attractions. Akoma spends almost all her time in AfricaTown. As vivid as her descriptions are of that fictional district, the book more or less ignores the rest of the city. Cultural diversity is one of the best things about San Francisco. We have a long history of immigrants making their mark. It was disappointing to see so little of the city and its people appear in the story. If anything, the great detail Lieb goes into on AfricaTown makes the absence of description of the rest of the city stand out even more.
What frustrates me is that Lieb had a good opportunity to talk about immigration, the diaspora, and gentrification. Right now we’re dealing with Black San Franciscans and Chinese and Japanese families who have lived in their historic neighborhoods since the nineteenth century who are being forced out due to the housing crisis and greedy gentrifiers. I would have loved it if Lieb had given readers even a tiny bit of background on AfricaTown. I’m a historian of the San Francisco Bay Area, so I’m probably thinking way too much about this, but more information on her near-future version of San Francisco would not only allow Lieb the chance to do some analogies on current issues Bay Area teens are dealing with but also give AfricaTown more depth and complexity.
Something Lieb does well is her use of flashbacks, cell phone texts, documents and transcripts, and other narrative flourishes. These enhance the reading experience in fun ways, and teen readers will probably get a kick out of the non-traditional formatting. Lieb has a brisk, engaging writing style that keeps the reader hooked. I inhaled this book over a couple reading sessions because it was so hard to put down.
Goldenborn is a fun book with a clever premise. Ama Ofosua Lieb blends folklore, science fiction, and fantasy into something refreshing and unique. I think teen readers will have a good time with this book. Despite my frustrations with some of the worldbuilding, I’m looking forward to the sequel. I’m very curious to see what Akoma’s next adventure is.
Goldenborn is published by Scholastic Press.
