Review of Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi

I was taken with the premise of conflicts and mystery in a post-colonial West African city, but I didn't feel very connected to or invested in the fantastical elements or the revelations around them in this slow build of a novel.

In Tochi Onyebuchi's fantasy mystery, main protagonist Boubacar is a war veteran and a private investigator whose cases have been few and far between for a while now.

But when a young woman shows up bleeding at his home, then mysteriously disappears, he is shocked into action and determined to find out what's going on. He must delve into his own past connections and dredge up painful, complex past dynamics and loyalties, while forming an unlikely alliance with a young, scrappy thief and imagining an unorthodox future.

Harmattan Season is a dark, broody, mysterious fantasy story that takes place in an unnamed city in post-colonial West Africa, with tensions between the indigenous dugulen and the French at the forefront. Bouba himself is part of both worlds, a "deux-fois," half French and half dugulen. His ability to pass in and out of each circle allows him insights and knowledge--but also invites assumptions and criticism from both groups.

"Harmattan season" refers to a months-long time that spans the end of one year and beginning of the next, when dry, sandy winds blow into West Africa from the Sahara Desert. Bouba's current-day situation is similarly fraught and difficult. As Bouba explores recent mysterious events, he realizes that the upcoming election is corrupt and has been secured with bribery and violence. He's reliving his own past missteps and crimes that occurred in the name of duty. And he's horrified that the inexplicable explosions and floating bodies in the sky aren't caused by bombs, but are powered by elements and powers more sinister, base, and brutal than he could have imagined.

I was taken with the premise of this novel, but I found the revelations slow, and I because Bouba comprehended little of what was occurring for the majority of the book, his scope felt small and constrained. The denouements felt somewhat tedious to me, and the fantastical aspects (the floating buildings and bodies) were an aspect that felt disjointed from the heart of the story. I had to push myself to finish this one.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

More about Tochi Onyebuchi

Onyebuchi is also the author of Riot Baby and Goliath.