Reviews with content warning for Death - The Death of Vivek Oji

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

335 reviews

dreadspawn's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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katewhite77's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

Wow, just wow

This book tells the story of a tragedy. The clues in the name, but how did we get here?

Set in Nigeria, it tells the of a family through the eyes of two generations. The story has an interesting structure, and one I can't remember reading before in that we hear from 3 points of view, but one of these is an omniscient narrator which allows us to zoom in and zoom out all the time.

Themes here include how changing social attitudes can manifest within families even in an oppressive society Gender identity and what children can teach their parents

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hottamolly's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective 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

I can’t always explain why a book is a five star read to me, but something about Emezi’s writing style and this devastating and beautiful story really pulled me in. I loved it.

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midnightrubies's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-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? No

4.5

Ngl the incest was so messy. Also Osita having to live with the knowledge that Nnandi' s death was an accident is so heartbreaking.

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alyssaakdefusco's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-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

4.5

I could barely put this book down, but not because I needed to know what happened to Vivek. The portrait of a young, queer Nigerian man and his family was so vivid, generous, and devastating. Walking through their lived experiences and their grief was so raw and beautiful. The timeline jumps and narrator shifts were absolutely seamless. This book flowed in such a poignant way and it will stay with me for a long time.

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nightfell's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

I know the ending was probably intended to be shocking but it ended up being anticlimactic for me. I wish we had gotten to see more of what was going on for Vivek, even though I know the book was intentionally written through outside perspectives, I wanted to hear more about his journey finding himself, even through the perspectives of the girls, I would have had more of a connection to his struggles and thus his families' struggles.

But I feel like the author didn't and framed his gender identity as a reveal at the end, which I personally didn't like, but I understand why it was written in that way.

Also, why was there incest. What was the reason? "My cousin. My brother. The love of my sinful life" or something like that, like whyyy did they not only write incest but kept on reminding us that they are related, and like brothers?? It kind of ruined the book for me, I couldn't look past it.

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