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booksandmo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Incest, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Moderate: Blood, Deadnaming, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Miscarriage
gm_vak's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Violence
solly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Akwaeke Emezi's writing is absolutely gorgeous. It flows beautifully, is incredibly easy to fall into, and has some lines that'll stay with me forever.
I loved that this was a masterfully crafted book. The fact that we don't get a lot of Vivek's chapters/thoughts really resonated with the rest of the book, the idea that most people didn't really know Vivek fully. It's really a beautifully crafted story.
However, there's a few things I didn't know how to feel about. The incest wasn't one of them, weirdly enough, but I understand that the main romantic/sexual relationship being between cousins is going to be upsetting or triggering to some people, so be warned.
No, what bothered me is that I spoiled the ending for myself before picking it up.
Spoiler
So, spoilers ahead. I didn't know if I could go through a book about a death to transmisogynist violence, so I looked at spoilers and found out Vivek doesn't die to transphobic violence. Which made it easier to read the book, but meant that it didn't always sit right with me that the whole book implies a transphobic death that ends up being an accident. I probably need to think about it more because I can see a bit of what the author was going for with that ending, but I don't really like it. It's probably not the intention but it feels a tiny bit like "hey let's talk about how horrible transmisogyny is all throughout the book and then GOTCHU it was an accident" (though the accident could be further commentary about how being scared/hiding is also dangerous?)I'm just. Really ambivalent about that ending. But I enjoyed almost everything else about the book immensely, so it's really hard to rate it properly. Maybe I'll change the rating when I've thought about the ending some more.
Graphic: Incest, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Grief, Death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Blood, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
Minor: Animal death
lettucelaugh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, Death, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Outing, Incest, Grief, and Deadnaming
peachani's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Biphobia
lparks90's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia
miachalupa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Transphobia, Death, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
lostbetweenpages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Death, Incest, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
_fallinglight_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
Moderate: Death, Sexism, and Transphobia
blakethebookeater's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I did not like this book.
While I did appreciate the themes in this book, and Vivek's exploration of gender and sexuality...it just fell flat for me.
And actually it was worse than than in some areas, because this book depicts a loving and "beautiful" incestuous relationship between cousins. It was extremely unnecessary and uncomfortable, given there are also MULTIPLE sex scenes between the two young boys.
There were some aspects in the back half that I did enjoy, such as the mystery around how Vivek died, but at the end of the day once the incest started, I just didn't care about any of the characters anymore. I'm sorry, I REALLY wish I could have loved this book as much as everyone else does, but it was just really not for me.
Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Incest, and Transphobia
Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Deadnaming and Domestic abuse