Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

17 reviews

shenelle_h's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Infidelity

Minor: Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Drug use, and Death of parent

hunni_reads's review

medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer

age gap relationship

smartcookiesca's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Violence

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Self harm

alexisgarcia's review

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Emezi is one of the best writers I have read from. they write such full characters. the characters have flaws but can also be so loveable. while i could point out many “flaws” in this book, it doesn’t matter. i loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Alcohol

zombiezami's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Outing

Minor: Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

grets_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Death, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

gdavis254's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Blood

wilybooklover's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

2.5

It’s hard to know how to rate this one because there were some things I loved and some things I didn’t. 

Feyi and Alim felt like real, complex people. It’s hard to sell me on an age-gap romance (especially where one is old enough to be the other’s parent) but I think the author just about made it work. Loved the depiction of friendship between Feyi and Joy, and the vibrant island setting too. The writing was very pretty but I didn’t quite vibe with it; it felt like it was so overwrought that it got in the way of the narrative at times.   

My main issues: not only did the romance feel a little rushed, but it also felt as though there was something missing. I’m not sure whether it was because the MCs don’t meet until the book is quite far in (27%), or because Alim’s character and emotional arc felt secondary to Feyi’s, or maybe a combination of both. They had like three conversations and suddenly they were madly in love? I just needed to see more interaction to buy it. It also felt like overcoming grief was the primary plot and the romance was the secondary plot. I wish there had been a little more focus on the romance and that Alim had more page-time. Maybe if the first third was condensed and the last third expanded, it would have worked for me better. 

If you like complex, nuanced characters, messy emotions, questionable decisions, and romance-adjacent women’s fiction that leans literary then I think you’ll like this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer and Child death

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

I read this as part of 12 recs from 12 friends but sadly it just wasn’t for me 🙈

All the characters are awful and unlikeable: 

-Nasir thinks he’s “owed” a relationship with Feyi and is friends with her expecting she’ll change her mind about him at some point as if men and women can’t be friends.

-Joy is a lesbian and seems to fall into the predatory lesbian stereotype, constantly dating straight women (or straight passing?) and gets pissed off when they don’t want to leave their husbands/bfs?!

-Feyi liking a potential romantic partner’s dad; he’s old enough to be your dad girl 😳 She’s selfish and reckless as she does everything she wants without thinking about other peoples feelings and then seems to play the victim. I really didn’t like her.

-Alim also isn’t blameless-he knew how Nasir felt about Feyi and SLEPT WITH HER ANYWAYS!? Shit dad of the year award 

I did appreciate the exploration of grief and loss. I can also appreciate the writing style! I’ll also give credit because it did at least show me I don’t like huge age gap romances, now I know 😅

I also shouldn’t have listened to this one on audio because of all the sexual content; I don’t like romance on audio because it sounds much more cringy when narrated and just makes me uncomfortable 🙈 I wanted to be done with it so badly, I sped up the narration to 2x speed (I’m usually a max 1.5x listener). This is the second book I’ve read from Emezi and enjoyed it much more, so I’ll still give their other works a try!

Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️ (1.5-2/3)

Tropes: second chance, dilf/parent of friend, age gage (May-December romance)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Cursing and Infidelity

Minor: Cancer and Child death