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 Hachette Audio 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.

3.5/5 Audiobook/Narration
2.5/5 Overall
I don’t want to harp too much on what other reviewers have already said. For me, this book was overall just okay. One thing I definitely want to highlight is that I had the privilege of listening to the audiobook while also checking out the e-book on Libby, and I am so glad I did. I really loved the dual narration, and I think the narrators did a great job with what they were given. However, I don’t think this is a book I could have finished by just listening to the audiobook or only reading the physical copy. Having an immersive reading experience helped significantly, as there were many parts that felt disjointed. The audiobook smoothed over certain sections and captured the emotional range of the story, which helped enhance the reading experience. However, if I had relied solely on the audiobook, I think it would have been difficult to follow the story completely, as there are many different branches on this tree.

The book contains several side plots that don’t ever feel fully resolved, but at the forefront is a really interesting conversation about generational trauma. It dives into misogyny and the ideals that can be passed down through fear, trauma, grief, and regret. I appreciated the multiple perspectives, showcasing the different ways each character is affected by their past and their family’s history. We see a father’s fears guiding his decisions—what he considers protecting his daughter is actually capturing and holding her hostage, while also making those around him complicit in doing so. At the same time, he strips his son of his youth, using his own fear to manipulate his son into policing his sister. 

This book presents a layered exploration of the dangerous effects of bearing the weight of a family member’s pain. While I appreciate what the story was trying to tell, the execution wasn’t quite there for me. The narration was excellent—capturing emotional range, different voices, tones, and accents—but structurally, the story needed more cohesion.

I’m thankful to Netgalley & Hachette Audio for this ALC.

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

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This one was a tough one. It certainly wasn’t a light story as we followed a family as they all dealt with some pretty heavy trauma. It was hard, interesting, funny, sweet and thought provoking.

CN for suicidal thoughts

Thanks to #netgallery for access to this arc.

Genre: literary fiction
Format: Audio
POV: Multiple
Tropes: Diverse characters, African immigrants to America, generational trauma, war, mental health issues.
Ending: Resolved
Spice: NA
Age suggestion: 16+

A tragic tale of a Nigerian immigrant family welding to their community in Florida.

Damaged from an upbringing surrounded by war and terror, the parents in this story have both their past and their struggles in America to conquer. On top of that, they’re raising a teenage girl and boy while healing and working through their personal difficulties.

It sounds like a detrimental pot because it is. Fear takes over the head of household and his decisions are living in that fear with no one else in the family able to control the outcomes easily. This greatly affects everyone, especially the daughter. She receives terrible treatment meanwhile the mother feels helpless and is seeking peace and understanding at any cost.

I don’t really think there’s any happy ending or even resolve to this story, however, it mirrors so many times in our lives when we struggle and don’t always know how to pick up the pieces or if what we’re doing is right or if it’s best.

In that regard I appreciate this thought provoking reflection of human error and desperation when trying to protect and take responsibility for family.

I was really I treated in the premise of this story and of course the gorgeous cover, however, this story didn’t resonate with me like I hoped.
I really enjoyed the narrator, the parts about the Nigerian Civil war, and the brother and sister’s character development.
Even though this story didn’t work for me, I look forward to what the author writes in the future.

This audiobook is narrated beautifully and respectfully by Yinka Ladeinde & Leo Anifowose. This story deals heavily with generational trauma, CPTSD, and war. The narrators voices hold so much pain, frustration, empathy, compassion, and anger that it makes the characters feel like real. Almost like friends. This was a good choice to narrate the story this way.

Basically, this is set in Orlando, Florida, amongst the Ewerike family who has immigrated from Nigeria. Husband and wife, Fidelis & Adaobi with their teenaged children Chuk & Amara. Fidelis was formerly a POW during the Nigerian Civil War. He lost his sister, Ugochi, during the war. Fidelis is struggling with CPTSD and his family is suffering right along with him. This novel focuses on how the family reacts to and manages with Fidelis' unresolved trauma. Some scenes were quite harrowing to read.

This was a first novel, and it could be felt in places. There were a few pacing issues, and this almost had too many side characters. It was hard not to invest as much in the side characters as the main characters. Not all of the side characters got a complete story, and I find myself wondering what happened to them.

Thank you to Julie Iromuanya, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

I enjoy immigrant stories and this had the potential to be a great one. We follow Fidelis a Nigerian man who moves from Nigeria with his wife and his two kids to Florida.

The author takes us on a journey of multigenerational trauma and upbringing until present day. Fidelis‘ sister Ugochi was one of the 276 school girls that were abducted. He goes on a journey to find her, but not before locking his daughter Amara in her room as he fears she will meet the same fate.

The story had potential, but unfortunately for me the author had too many side plots happening that made the story seem unfinished and quite hard to follow; the Mum going to visit the preacher, the brother learning martial arts and Amara‘s romance? Too much happening.

The end of the book threw me and seemed rushed. I may give the book another try by reading instead of listening. Whilst I didn’t love this book others might.

Both narrators were good, however I wish that they were able to do the American accents better. I will say the Nigerian pronunciations of words was done very well so well done.

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 prose is evocative as it clearly communicates the despair, ptsd, anger, selfishness, and confusion that covers this family because of the actions of a haunted father.

What trauma and history could possibly lead a father to imprison a daughter under the guise of protection? What loyalty keeps a mother from freeeing her daughter and fleeing with her children? How the responsibility passed on to a son can make him overlook his sister's personhood and perpetuate his father's incarceration.

The pacing of this book is quite quick and I feel that hurt the plot evolution and eventual conclusion of the book. I love books that give backstories of our main characters, here though Iromuanya focuses on the mother instead of the father, which I felt was a misstep in that it left his experience as a soldier and POW too obscure and thus left the reader too much in the dark with regards to his trauma-aided motivations.

#aseasonoflight speaks to the cyclical and damaging nature of secrets and hidden pain as well as the healing that can commence when we face our deepest fears and dark past.

A touching portrait of an immigrant family struggling to come to terms with past secrets and trauma. I would be interested to see more from this author. The narrator was a great fit for the story.