Lagoon

Lagoon
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of Bookbridgr and the publisher!

Three people where wandering the beach when something crashes in to the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria. Adaora, a marine biologist, Anthony, a rapper, and Agu, a soldier. All are different, all have a unique gift, and all have been chosen. They have to save their country and the world itself from...itself, when an alien race makes itself known, and all the creatures in the sea start to...change, and decide they've had enough with humans destroying their habitat. When the aliens arrive on shore, Lagos starts to tear itself apart, everyone suspects everyone else of being one of....them. Will humanity be able to accept them? Will Lagos survive?

Holy wooooww! I wasn't too sure what to expect from Lagoon, I was intrigued by the synopsis, but I really didn't know what to expect and as soon as I started reading I was fully sucked in to the story and engrossed the entire way through. Lagoon is fast paced, engaging, and really makes you think, what would you do or feel in the same situation? Lagoon expertly switches from different points of view, our three main special characters, other characters a couple of times, a creature here and there, which was brilliant as you then saw how we, humanity, just casually swats them like flies with our technology and inventions, not even on purpose but without realizing. Aaaannd a couple of points of view from people saying their experience of what happened when the aliens came. Which was fantastically done and showed how it affected so many different people and just gave the story some added intrigue and an interesting break from the narrative.

The prose was truly beautiful, and poetic and propelled the story forward with the appropriate amount of action, intrigue and a fantastically smooth flow! There where so many elements combined, I got a strong sense of Nigerian mythology, which I'd really like to know more about now! Agu's powers reminiscent of a superhero, the aliens where an obvious element! But they where really cool aliens! Lagoon was so unique, combining the mythology with superhero powers and aliens and human nature and behaviour. The aliens where very unique, with how they can change, and the sea creatures and everything.

Lagoon is a true science-fiction novel, it's political and philosophical with plenty of action and I want to say there was a tiny smidge of a quest with getting to the President! The characters where all colourful and full of life! I enjoyed all of them, they where such a diverse group, each with different personalities and walks of life, and I really enjoyed reading about them, each made you feel a range of emotions, particularly a certain Oke who I really, REALLY wanted to smack in the face! They where all so engaging and just eeeeee well written characters!

I thought the plot was unique, well written and well thought out, it was intricate, with lots of different elements as mentioned, and I enjoyed trying to work out what was going to happen next, I mean I could never tell where the story was going or what was going to happen, when everyone else had doubts about what the aliens wanted, and if they actually did come in peace, I had doubts too and started to think "oh crap....they're evil!" but then they weren't and it was a real rollercoaster ride. To me, the story seemed to just flow naturally, and it seemed quite organic!

The setting should also be mentioned because it was so vividly written that I actually felt like I was there with the characters, I feel like I've been to Lagos now and it was such an atmospheric setting!

Lagoon is a truly fantastic read, for me it was thought provoking and a rollercoaster, it was so unique and a real look at humanity, I mean the reaction to the alien invasion? I'd love to see people wouldn't totally destroy themselves and get all paranoid, but let's be honest, that's exactly how we'd react! I'm going to be keeping an eye on Okorafor's future books  because I really loved this and I can't wait to see what she does next!