Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

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

81 reviews

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

3.25

I would like to start this review by pointing out that most of the angry one-star reviewers are over the top. This is not a simple story with black-and-white characters. Although there are blurred lines, there is no cheating. I think context is important to this story—there is a lot going on underneath the obvious. And it’s easy as heck to judge from behind a computer a world away. There are real feelings displayed by the story. And I think the characters were equally real.

I can’t tell if the lingo is just out of date or if the dialogue felt uneasy. There was a lot of slang that didn’t feel natural, BUT I’m very white and I know how white people will steal from black culture and burn it into the ground. So I cannot speak on it much, but it’s possible the lingo IS true to the characters, and I’ve just been burnt out on its use by other white people.

I think I wanted a bit more of a natural flow to the relationship between Feyi and Alim. They barely knew one another! I think the before: them joking or discussing things, etc. could’ve made it feel smoother.

As it was, their relationship did seem unfair to pursue over his children. I was kind of with them. Although they were entirely unfair to Feyi. Nasir, especially, really frustrated me. He acted like a fuckboy when she didn’t deserve that. Also I’m annoyed with how the kids had handled (and continued to handle) their father’s sexuality.

All that aside, I think this was a lovely book about the tide of grief and loss. How it never goes away; just recedes temporarily.

Content Warnings

ms_read's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Content Warnings

jodierose14's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

bibble_kingly's review against another edition

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The book started off incredibly messy and the mess was just a lot for me.
Things to note:

The main character is supposed to be unlikable
Almost all of the prominent side characters are incredibly messy in their own way. (Yes, people can be messy in real life and fiction. The behavior is also really toxic despite the fact, we are told our main femme characters are in therapy)

This book just wasnt for me and that's okay.

Content Warnings

llams's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

this is the most beautiful book i've read yet! i'm not great with the words but this was so moving and beautiful and full of love alongside the pain and ache

Content Warnings

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

I’d heard great things about Akwaeke Emezi’s writing but mainly about their YA novels Pet and the companion novella Bitter. Since I downloaded Libby *angel choir noise* I was disappointed to not find the audiobook version of Pet on there but You Made a Fool came up instead. After briefly scanning the blurb, I decided to jump in. And oh, what a gloriously realised world Akwaeke has made.

The rub is that our artist MC, Feyi, is dipping her toes back into the dating scene after the death of her husband five years prior with the help of Joy, her chaotic, lesbian friend. After a brief but ends-as-friends- situationship with a man called Milan, Feyi begins a let’s-be-friends-first relationship with Nasir, one of Milan’s friends. Nasir, who comes from a VERY well-connected family, presents Feyi an opportunity to be a part of an exhibition of Black Diaspora artists. Fast-forward to Nasir taking Feyi to his gorgeous tropical family home (I’m not a visual reader, but I could SEE this house from Akwaeke’s descriptions!!) and to also meet Nasir’s equal parts rich and reclusive celebrity chef.

It sounds like the start to a very light-hearted tropical holiday romance, right? WRONG.

Nasir’s father, Alim, is like Feyi – a lonely widower – and Feyi experiences an immediate attraction to Alim that she tries to stifle and explain away as it existing because Alim is “unattainable” and, while she is technically not in a romantic relationship with Nasir, would be frowned upon.

I won’t spoil too much, but the story touches very deeply into the ways grief can change your soul and provide a bond between people – both romantic and platonic. The building relationship between Alim and Feyi (who are both bisexual!) is never presented as a titillating trope, but rather as two deeply injured humans navigating their trauma and grief and deciding to choose love as a way to move through life. There’s so much narrative freedom to Feyi – the story focuses so much Feyi allowing herself to be who she needs to be and without compromising her ideals or happiness.

The story gets quite intense around the time Alim’s children find out about this burgeoning romance (I had to turn my audio off at one point on the way home from work because it was stressful to listen to at that time), and the story could easily fall apart with various miscommunications but instead Akwaeke carries us safely to the story’s end. I could wax poetic about this book, but also! Joy being an incredible friend throughout this story? Feyi and Alim both being adults who actively go to therapy? All amazing to see in a contemporary romance novel.

Content Warnings

binevolentbookworm's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

hi_its_micah's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

katherinew's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

sleepylemon96's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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? It's complicated

5.0

Yet another masterpiece by Emezi, this beautiful, ~spicy~ 👀, incredibly impactful story is about love and its many forms. It is an exploration of grief, of friendship, and of art and its power to heal; it is an ode to all those who know or need to hear that it is okay to honor yourself, your needs and your wants.

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