Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

147 reviews

kasarin's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Transphobia, Death, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Infertility, Hate crime, Miscarriage, and Animal death

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Grief and identity

Potentially spoilers!!

‘Some people can't see softness without wanting to hurt it.’

‘if you didn't tell other people, was it real or was it just something the two of you were telling yourselves?’

‘“I’m not sure my belief matters," he says. "If it is, it is, whether I believe it or not."’

‘ No one else could feel that lifetime of loss. No one else had lost him more than she had, yet they cried in front of her as if it meant something. They're still children, Kavita tried to tell herself, not mature enough to do her the courtesy of keeping their tears in their bedrooms, among their own complete families. But still she thought of them as selfish brats without home training or compassion or empathy, and this in turn made her angry at these girls she knew she still loved, somewhere under the rage and pain and the grief that she felt belonged to her and only her.’

‘“We can't keep insisting he was who we thought he was, when he wanted to be someone else and he died being that person, Chika. We failed, don't you see We didn't see him and we failed."’

‘when you've stood on ground and known your child's bones are rotting beneath you, rage and ego fade like dust in a strong wind.’

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Vomit, Miscarriage, Rape, Blood, Homophobia, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Violence

anushka_17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Infidelity, Grief, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death

30something_reads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

You win again, Emezi.

3 for 3 on the ugly crying. This one probably tops all the others. I'm literally crying right now as I write this. Everything was so beautiful and devastating all at once. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Dysphoria, Grief, and Sexism

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Incest, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Bullying, and Blood

taratearex's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 This was beautiful, moving, and heartbreaking. I love Emezi's prose and storytelling so much, it is just so rich, vivid, and innovative.

I loved how this book was sort of told backwards as you get what happened in the beginning (and in the title) and then jump around in time getting vignettes and snapshots of this family's life in Nigeria. As the story unfolds we learn more and more about Vivek and every moment with Vivek felt too brief, which is even more heartbreaking as you know how his story ends, and the why just pushes the story forward.

As much as I liked all the different characters and perspectives, I did find it a bit hard to follow, this is often how I am with a lot of characters/shifting POV though, and I just kept wanting more of Vivek's story- Emezi just created such a dynamic character that shines though so strongly even through brief moments. I have to say I did struggle with the fact that there is a relationship between cousins here, I can appreciate the story as it is, but it did sort of keep me at arms length with the emotional connection to them. Overall, it's a stunning and memorable book. The audiobook is really good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Grief, Infidelity, and Incest

bookish_afrolatina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This book was pretty devastating. The many povs were so realistic and I felt like Emezi was really patient with creating each narrative. This was a soulful read. I probably won’t read it again but I’d recommend it to those who have already read other Emezi works like You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty because both books are quite messy. Otherwise, this may not be the book for you.

This may seem annoying to some but I could have done without the incest element here. I was also surprised by how many sex scenes there were (not full blown but at least partially described) but such is life, I suppose! The ending was very unexpected for me which made it all the more heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Incest, Grief, and Domestic abuse

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

An absolute work of art and an important story to tell. 

I found some of the character choices hard to understand and I feel like I struggled to connect with the characters, though I largely think this is because I wasn’t in the right mood.

Would love to reread. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Death

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Deadnaming, Incest, and Transphobia

Minor: Alcohol and Infertility

meaghanelizabook's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Infidelity, and Incest

Moderate: Animal death

therainbowshelf's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This wasn't a pick for me because I don't love literary fiction because it's usually dismal, depressing, and has horrible things happen for no reason. Of course, with that understanding of both this genre and Emezi's work, I went into this with appropriately low expectations of joy. It seems like an intriguing book and takes a hard look at struggles, especially for women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Transphobia, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Rape

magneto's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I got this book on a whim not really knowing what it was about or what to expect. I love how the author tackled multiple points of view throughout and how they paced the unfolding of the mystery of Vivek's life and death. I didn't want to put this down while reading as the characters and their stories were so engrossing, particularly the found family aspects. I almost didn't pick this book up as I love queer stories but usually avoid sad ones but I'm so glad I gave it a shot anyways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Grief

Minor: Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Sexual content