“The aliens in Lagoon embody change. Their superior technologies and ability to heal humans and shapeshift into multiple beings affects every living creature in Lagos — from the swordfish in the sea to the bats hurling through the air to the tarantula scurrying across the highway to the citizens of Lagos, with whom we spend the most time as Ayodele forecasts The Arrival.”
“Lagoon establishes Okorafor as the inheritor of the mantle of Wole Soyinka, the celebrated Nigerian novelist whose themes center on the infinite beauty and destructive politics of his beloved country.”
“With The Book of Phoenix Okorafor establishes herself as an inheritor of Octavia Butler, as well. Okorafor’s central protagonist in this book, Phoenix, recalls Lilith from Dawn (1987), Dana from Kindred (1979), or even Lynn from “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” (1987): she is a black woman who has been called to leadership, compassion, and even revolution amidst extraordinary circumstances.”