Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor [Book Review]

[Content Warnings: animal death, blood, violence, gun violence, rape, sexual assault, toxic relationship, domestic abuse, religious bigotry, transphobia, homophobia, body horror, cursing, emotional abuse, gore, hate crime, infidelity, kidnapping, misogyny, police brutality]

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor is a Afrofuturist novel following Adaora, Agu and Anthony after a sonic wave disrupts Nigerian life. Taking place over the span of a couple of days, Okorafor takes us through multiple perspectives and the inner workings of technology, ecology and challenges the reader to question whether multiple narratives actually remove the issues that come with a single story.

After having read the authors’ The Book of Phoenix, I was going into this with some sort of expectation of her writing style, which is very abrupt and explicit and poignant, and while this book definitely can be described similarly, it can be a very overwhelming book with odd portrayals of characters. Okorafor has said this book is a response to the portrayal of Nigerians in the movie District 9, and it makes sense considering there are so many characters, but sometimes I think it became too character driven and not really Nigerian driven.

Some brilliant aspects of the book were the interweaving of the lives of the characters, making it something of a game for the reader to work out which characters have more information than we do, and which characters are in for a shock because we know what’s about to happen. The jumping forwards and backwards, often by only a matter of minutes or hours, really places the reader at a vulnerable crossroad in the plot, and it is quite remarkable how Okorafor pulled it off without the characters muddling together as one. However, the effect was that sometimes the perspectives didn’t really add to the story and they were merely present.

The presence of animal perspectives as well was really quite unique I think, and really highlighted how literal Okorafor took the question “who is affected by X?”, as she always does. This all-encompassing approach to cause and effect in the context of an alien invasion is brilliant to me and I actually appreciated the animal perspectives more than some human ones.

Additionally, the religious dynamic of the novel, with conversations of Christianity in the south and Islam in the north, which is the current situation in Nigeria, played out really beautifully, especially when paired with the traditional Igbo and Yoruba mythologies and spirits. These traditions sprinkled throughout were very intentional and felt like they deserved a place in the plot, which I cannot say for all the characters.

Overall, while this book is slightly chaotic and overwhelming, I do think this book is one worth reading, but maybe not as Okorafor’s first book. If you were interested in her novels, I would wholly recommend the Binti trilogy first and then The Book of Phoenix. This book may fascinate some people I am sure, especially sci-fi lovers who are looking for something a little different and modern, but it didn’t quite excite me as much as make me anxious.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5