Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

67 reviews

omarickman's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

cass_lit's review against another edition

3.5

This was beautifully written and I was here for all of it except for

the incest

. I just couldn’t get behind that relationship, and it’s a fairly important part of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, and Transphobia

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

kclark's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Transphobia and Homophobia

elmasbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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: Transphobia, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Outing, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, and Rape

whatannikareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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

4.25

EMEZI HIVE WE’RE HERE!! oh man oh man is this another banger. I don’t think anything can beat Freshwater for me and the experience reading that, but this book gave me the same verve to finish the book quickly and stay up past my bedtime bc I couldn’t put it down. What a culturally rich story that’s ripe full of lgbtq themes and both internal and external conflict. I think even though Vivek is the star, I can’t help but admire how Kavita is one of the most thoroughly written and thought out characters I’ve ever read. I can’t help but sympathize with her and be angry with her but understand and admire her love for her son.

But the things I didn’t really enjoy I couldn’t ignore, like the *big* intentional main controversial relationship; I have seen the reasoning for its inclusion but doesn’t mean it sat well with me ever. And also it felt like there were a lot of characters at times that could’ve been reduced; they weren’t as developed as they could have and sometimes I had trouble keeping up with who was who. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic to me and how it unfolds, but I’d be lying if Emezi’s writing didn’t have me in a chokehold. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Transphobia, Violence, Animal death, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

This book broke my heart. This powerful and beautiful story mainly takes place following Vivek Oji's death, and how his death deeply impacted his family and friends. 
No one really knew Vivek during his live, except for his closest cousin, Osita. Now in his death, his mother is grasping to learn everything she did not understand about Vivek. Vivek's mother found his naked body wrapped in fabric, delivered to their home. She just wants to understand how Vivek died, because she assumes there was some sort of foul play. She turns to Osita because he is the one who knew Vivek best. 
This book tackles a lot of challenging issues because Vivek suffers from debilitating disconnections, and he also struggled with his identity. Vivek likes to wear dresses and he likes boys, which is NOT accepted in his Nigeran home. There are also themes of grief and acceptance that were impeccably done. 
I cannot say enough how impactful this read was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual content

ce_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Incest, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Outing, Blood, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Hate crime, and Transphobia

If this weren't written by a trans person I'd be a lot more mad about the ending

patricia0227's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

This book is fantastically written, I just wasn't the biggest plan of the romance part of the plot. The character of Vivek is masterfully written, the setting and the world are really well built out, and I enjoyed getting to know the cast of characters. Definitely very sad. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Child death, and Sexual content

thecoolestmoe's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Transphobia, Child death, and Homophobia

ollie_again's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Child death, Homophobia, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Incest, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Eating disorder and Dysphoria