When two hundred and seventy six girls are abducted from a school in Nigeria, Fidelis Ewerke, a Nigerian former POW and laywer living in Florida, goes a little mad. He relives the pain of losing his younger sister Ugochi, who went missing during the Nigerian Civil War, and becomes terrified for his sixteen-year-old daughter Amara. With no explanation and for no particular action on her part, he locks her in her room.

His wife Adaobi convinces Amara, who looks remarkably like Ugochi, to bide her time while Adaobi worked on changing Fidelis' mind about her captivity. Amara's younger brother Chuk, bullied by the neighbourhood boys, does not understand what is going on, but unfortunately accepts his mother's words that Amara did a bad thing, and even supports his father by maintaining a vigil at Amara's door, refusing to let her out. Meanwhile, Adaobi becomes enamoured of a local fiery priest.

Amara spends her days watching the neighbours, including a sixteen-year-old boy whose alcoholic father makes his days miserable. Occasionally, Amara, resentful and angry, escapes and gets to know Maksym Kostyk, then, quietly returns to her locked room. Amara and Maksym begin planning their escape from their messed up families.

This was a story of a family spiralling in on itself and out of control due to the patriarch's trauma and grief. Fidelis' unexamined pain explodes all over his family, and we get each family member's, including his, perspective of what is happening within the house and within them in reaction Amara's imprisonment.

The story was interesting, and kept me engaged, despite the occasional narrative thread that either felt tangential or not fully realized. I was also a little surprised by how quickly the novel wrapped up, but, was glad that Amara did come out stronger and more certain of who she was after the terrible betrayal by her father.

I went back and froth between the text and the audio for this story, and greatly enjoyed the narration by Yinka Ladeinde and Leo Anifowose. They each brought the characters to life wonderfully; I loved how Yinka's interpreted Amara and Adaobi, while Leo's work brought the difficult Fidelis to life.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Algonquin Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

A Season of Light was an excellent read. I appreciated the central Florida setting and the disparity between the "haves" of Winter Park and the "have-nots" of where our family ends up. I liked the themes of being haunted by a past event and bringing light to kidnapping of school girls in Nigeria. I thought the way the son and daughter were treated differently based on gender was well done.

I really had such high hopes, but I never got into this book.

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3.5⭐

Set in 2014, Florida A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya revolves around the Ewirike family: Nigerian immigrant Fidelis- a barrister and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War and his wife Adaobi, an educator and their children sixteen-year-old daughter Amarachi, “Amara” and fourteen-year-old son Chukwudiegwu “Chuk".

News of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Borno State, Nigeria, triggers a traumatic response in Fidelis, taking him back to the year he spent fighting the Civil War in Nigeria and the tragedy that befell his family and the disappearance of his younger sister Ugochi. His sense of past and present blurred, concern for his daughter’s safety prompts Fidelis to lock Amara, who bears a strong resemblance to Ugochi, in her room keeping her from leaving the house. Though he makes a point of attending to her needs, he offers no explanation or justification for his actions. We follow the family members as they try to cope with Fidelis’s increasingly erratic behavior while struggling with their own trauma.


With its fascinating premise and well-defined characters and touching upon themes of war, PTSD, generational trauma, mental health, family dynamics, immigration and assimilation and much more, A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya is a thought-provoking novel. The narrative, shared from multiple perspectives follows the family members as they try to make sense of their reality and the shifting dynamics within the family. Past events are mostly shared through recollections from Fidelis or Adaobi’s perspective. The author deftly incorporates a few elements of Nigerian tradition, belief and history into the narrative and has done a commendable job of describing the reactions of the children, who were unaware of the family history and the events that trigger Fidelis as well as Adaobi who shares much of Fidelis’s trauma, and her efforts to balance her husband's needs while trying to do the best for her children. Of all the characters, I was most drawn to Adaobi, though I did question a few of her decisions. I also appreciated getting to know Amara, who struggles to find a voice under the weight of expectations within a strongly misogynistic family framework. The character of Chuk, bullied by his peers yet trying to conform to his father's expectations as the son of the family, could have been explored in more depth.

Despite the strong premise and interesting characters, the narrative lacks cohesiveness and as the story progresses, the introduction of certain subplots -relatively inconsequential details and storylines - slows down the pace of the story and distracts from the central themes of the novel. As the different threads of the story converge toward the end ( which I felt was a tad rushed following a relatively slower build-up), the narrative not only becomes a tad disjointed and lacks in emotional depth, but also leaves certain aspects of the novel unexplored. Had the past timeline been described in more depth, this would have rendered the novel a more well- rounded, intense and affecting read.

This novel certainly has potential and though there is a lot about the writing that that is praiseworthy, overall, it does fall short in its execution.


Many thanks to Algonquin Books for the digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really wanted to like this. But after pausing at 28%, I realized that I didn’t have anything pulling me back in wanting to finish. So I just couldn’t do that to myself. I think if I did finish it would be okay but I’d rather just move on and find a book that can hold my attention more.

As a fan of immigrant stories and of Nigerian authors, I had high expectations for Julie Iromuanya’s book, A Season of Light. Going back to the horrendous kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria , the author takes us on a journey from Nigeria to Florida, where Fidelis Ewerike, still traumatized by the abduction of his sister Ugochi, holds his 16 year old daughter Amara, a virtual prisoner in her Florida bedroom in fear she will suffer a similar fate to her aunt in Nigeria. What an intriguing premise. Yet somehow in the execution of the plot , the story is mired in excess detail and plot offshoots. The growing madness of the main character is well depicted and the characters were well drawn. Still I found the execution of the plot to be slow and plodding making the story difficult to follow even though I had both an e book to read and well narrated audio for listening.

Very important issues are addressed by the author including racism, mental illness, the plight of immigrants leaving their homeland for a better life , and the tenacious hold of PTSD. Yet there were many diversions from the storyline which kept me searching for a common thread to bound the story together.

Three stars for a book that I would recommend to readers of fiction who enjoy culturally immersed plots and well defined characters. Maybe you’ll find it an easier read than I did. Thank you NetGalley , Algonquin Books and Hachette Audio for selecting me to receive printed and audio versions of this book. It will be published on Feb 4, 2025.

The past comes roaring back at Fidelis, who thought he escaped it when he emigrated with his family from Nigeria to Florida. Now, though, he's locked his daughter in her room oddly convinced that Boko Haram might be coming for her. This is all about the family's struggle to cope with his issues as well as their own. This leans in on culture and otherness as well as on trauma. It's not an easy read but it is an interesting one. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I requested an early release of this book because I am interested in reading about Africa and the African diaspora. I tried but couldn’t get past page 44 and I really don’t like giving up on books. There wasn’t enough in the plot to engage me.

As a Nigerian Igbo immigrant, I completely understood the vision for the book and its origins. I could totally see why Fidelis was triggered by the captured girls and taken back to the Biafran war where he lost his sister but I think what didn't work for me was the execution.

The book was heavy and not just with the subject matter. Like most african authors, the words weren't allowed to breathe and the words were heavy handed. There were so many storylines that you didn't know which one to invest in and it didn't help that the most of the storylines ended up nowhere. Yes, the anchor was the Enwerike family but it was all over the place. I never got closure for Amarachi and Maksym, Pastor John and Fidelis coming to his senses seemed to come out of nowhere. It was hard to follow what was real or a hallucination so in the beginning when Fidelis sleep walks I didn't realize it was a real time occurence. Lastly, for someone obsessed with the culture and Biafra, it was very surprising that the Enwerike kids couldn't speak the language.

Like I mentioned before, I understood what the vision was and usually I enjoy an intergenerational book but this didn't work for me.

The summary of this book sounded really interesting but the writing style and execution were just not for me . I got about 15% in and decided to give it up as I was just not enjoying myself

This book has a fascinating premise, but the execution is a bit of a letdown. A Nigerian family has settled in Orlando, but when over two hundred schoolgirls in Nigeria are kidnapped by terrorists, the patriarch of the family, Fidelis, experiences a PTSD resurgence-he fought in the Nigerian Civil War-and locks his 16-year-old daughter, Amara, in her bedroom indefinitely. Fidelis' younger sister, Ugochi, went missing during the civil war and was never found, and Fidelis believes history is repeating itself and he must protect his daughter.

This book has a lot of interesting and impactful things to say about generational trauma, cultural displacement, the insane, illogical, and interlocking systems of misogyny that impact both daughters and sons, and classism and racism and their reverberating effects. The family dynamics feel real and lived-in, and the characters are vivid. But this book just had way too many side-plots going on, and the emotional resolution wasn't there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books/Algonquin Young Readers for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Well, I’ll start off by saying I love a good contemporary African novel and a multigenerational one at that. I really liked the way the story flowed and the style of story telling made it a captivating read. The characters were easy to connect with and I was honestly never bored once while reading it. That being said, not too much stood out to me, but I did enjoy overall. Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Solid multigenerational family story with war and immigration. The characters are thoroughly developed and a very good read. I loved the story overall.

After hearing the news of kidnapped girls in his homeland, a veteran of the Biafran war living in Florida locks his own daughter in her room, sending his family into a crisis.

this was a pretty good book. The themes of generational trauma, survivors guilt, and shame were prevalent. I liked the story and the writing style. It did have some slow parts in the book, a few actually, but overall I did enjoy this book. It was not something I normally would read so I did enjoy it!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!