Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

12 reviews

callme_tippy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

2.0

This book is hard to review. I love Akwaeke Emezi's writing style, if there is one thing they can do, it's write. However, I found this one hard to read. 

I so wish that the two main characters were not related. I found the incest storyline very off-putting. It made it impossible for me to feel happy about their "love story", it just feels traumatizing and wrong. 

This story could have been beautiful and heartbreaking had the love interests not been so closely related. I feel that the incest doesn't add anything to the story and actually takes away from it. I would have felt more connected to the characters, and rooted for them had they not been related. It would have been so easy to make Osita a best friend instead of a first cousin. A first cousin that was raised as Viveks brother and that he often calls brother. 

I am baffled why Akwaeke chose this dynamic. It makes me wary to read more of their work. 
I also find it weird to make a trans character that has some type of mental illness going on, also be in an incestuous relationship. Not that it is right, but people already view trans people as taboo and wrong, so I find it strange to add a taboo and strange relationship to the mix. I don't know, something about that feels weird to me. 

We don't get any insight, information, or answer about what what type of mental illness going on with Vivek. She has these black outs that get brought up but not explained which I found frustrating. I wanted to know what that was about and why she has no recollection of these episodes. 

This book was just not it for me. I liked Vivek the most out all the characters, but I really had no favorites, the cast of characters was interesting to say the least. 

1 star for good writing, 1 star for well fleshed out characters. The incest ruined this one for me. I so wish they made the simple change to make them best friends instead of first cousins, I just could not connect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

mid_reads_books's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Incest, Mental illness, Transphobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Hate crime

blackcatkai's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

CW: sexual assault, death, violence, trans/homophobia, sexual content, infidelity, grief, religious bigotry/xenophobia, abuse, animal death, ableism, sexism

this is such a heartbreaking & difficult story about grief as well as sexual & gender identity. Emezi's writing is outstanding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

morganperks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

5.0

did not appreciate the emotions this book made me feel. I was crying by the end (when am I not tho?)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Drug use and Blood

olivelaughlove's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Incest, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Bullying

egg_cup's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

this book chewed me up and spat me out like a pomegranate seed I cried so hard during the last quarter of this book my eyes were sore and I had to lie silently and stare at the ceiling after I was finished for a while no thoughts head empty reduced to just an absolute shell of a human. 

Vivek I love you; Akwaeke Emezi it is ON SIGHT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

merin_aran's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

Stunning. Subperb. Sublime. This books is everything! Emezi is an incredibly gifted author and crafts a beautiful story full of depth and complexity. Despite knowing beforehand that Vivek dies (it's in the title) the reader is still left guessing and not knowing exactly what happens at the end. As a queer trans person myself this story hit me hard, it's so heartbreaking and I was left sobbing at the end. The representation of complex queer black characters is so important and Emezi executed it to perfection. One of my all-time favourite books. I will never stop recommending it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Transphobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Blood

epiphylium's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

I finished reading this book last night and I'm still at a loss as to how I feel about it. I wish I had went in with more of an idea as to what this was about -- because I didn't -- and that may be why I'm feeling a bit unsettled.

There were a lot of parts of this book that I enjoyed. I liked the way the author played around with non-linear storytelling. We know from the get go that this novel is about Vivek and that they die, and going from present day POV writing to a retelling of past tense. I think if done correctly, this can create a sense of mystery and tension that is engaging to read and helps pushes the story line. I enjoyed the author's writing style, which was although simple, it was effective. The characters I enjoyed getting to know also.

I really struggled with the incest however. I found that it was completely unnecessary (as it didn't really aid in story or character development) and it would have had the same effect if they were friends without the discomfort of having to read cousins engaging in sexual activities. The only thing I could think of is that it was potentially to build up shame in the characters experiencing it, but it wasn't really ever discussed or focused on so I'm just. We really could've done without it.

The ending can be seen as anti-climatic, but I don't think that lessened my feelings around it. I think it was cool that it left the readers/and the characters guessing,

thinking it could have been suicide, a hate crime, a murder, but it was actually just an accident.

Sometimes life just happens like that and it was a pleasant surprise(?) to see it go down that route.

Either way, I feel like I would tentatively recommend this book to others but only if they asked about it, and I would be very clear about the content warnings before having them pick up the book.

I would say that The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel has a similar energy to this, although based in a fictional town in America and goes a bit more in depth on certain issues. It has a vastly different writing style however, written in prose, poetry, and metaphors, which whilst I personally love, I can see not everyone enjoys, so there's that! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Sexual content

lilcoppertop's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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: Ableism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Gaslighting

tina94's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, and Death of parent