Review: Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book, though at times the story had a lot of potential. The novella is described as similar to Snowpiercer, but for me it strongly resembled the Silo trilogy in that it describes a future society enclosed in a tall structure, with the upper classes on the highest levels and the lowest classes on the lower levels. It takes place off the coast of West Africa in a time when the outside world is uninhabitable, and everyone in the region lives inside five high-rise towers known as “the fingers”. The most privileged live at the top of the finger, then you have the Midders and the Lowers, who are below sea level and are at great risk of flooding.

Yekini is a mid-level junior analyst who is asked to go on her first trip to the Lowers. She’s accompanied by Ngozi, a higher-level bureaucrat who sees this job as beneath him. Tuoyo is a mechanic in the lower levels investigating a breach in one of the walls. As the three work together, they begin to see that there is a darker conspiracy at work. 

I had expectations of this being a full novel, and I think some of my frustration came from this being a novella, as the story never felt fully developed and the character development was limited. As the characters begin investigating the breach, the action and story picked up. The characters grow as they interact with each other. I enjoyed the climate disaster and corporate greed elements of the story, which was enhanced by periodic news clippings that explain what happened.  But then the plot takes a dramatic shift and the whole tone of the story changed. If you’re a fan of dream-like writing, you may appreciate this more than I did. For me, this story leapt too quickly from action to allegory, which was distracting. While I was intrigued by the concept of “The Children” in this story, I was ultimately left wanting more.

Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher tordotcom. This book published May 21, 2024.