After The Rain

 Okorafor, Nnedi, written by John Jennings and illustrated by David Brame. After The Rain. 2021. 128p. ISBN 978-1-4197-4355-9. 

Chioma is a police officer from Chicago, but she's spending her vacation with her grandmother in a small Nigerian town. When she hears a knock on the door, she opens it only to find a boy, with half of his brains blown out. In a panic, she closes the door, but then opens it again to help the boy, and wonders how he is still alive. She touches him, and her hand suddenly ignites. She trashes about, only to realize that her hand is not burning, and the boy is gone. 

Plagued with visions and hauntings, Chioma is soon confronted by a monster that only comes out when the rain falls. As lizards follow her, and as the visions get worse, Chioma finds it difficult to sleep, until the monster finally catches up with her and transports her away from her grandmother's home. Alone and violently attacked, Chioma must dig in her spiritual and cultural reserves to confront the monster and survive her experience.

Beautifully illustrated, After The Rain is based on Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor's short story On the Road and is a quest for identity and belonging. Chioma's struggles to really find out who she is, and her repressed memories of events that happened in her past mix together to build a new and healed character.