Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

91 reviews

katewhite77's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Death

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Infidelity, Outing, and Transphobia

Minor: Islamophobia

victorsbookshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, and Misogyny

filosophicfoton's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Grief, Transphobia, Abandonment, Death, Incest, and Outing

Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, Hate crime, Violence, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Domestic abuse

kjofalltrades's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Violence, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Homophobia, Outing, Mental illness, Infertility, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse

one_womanarmy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful medium-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

4.25

Heartbreaking sorry of gay, lesbian, queer and trans identities growing up in a mixed class and mixed-ethnicity set of family systems in Nigeria. I cried through nearly half the book, swept up in the loneliness of performing ourselves for family alongside moments of the stunning beauty of tender, inescapable young love.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Incest, Eating disorder, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Homophobia, and Self harm

sara_berlin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

I found this book to have a less avant-garde style than some of Akwaeke Emezi's other books, but still with their unique flair, which I always love. It also fit into my accidental reading trend of gravitating toward perspectives that I don't often hear, which definitely applies to mainstream American literature and queer Nigerians. For both of those reasons, I really enjoyed the story, despite it's clear tragedy. The Death of Vivek Oji deserves to become a classic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Transphobia

hannahmayreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is very very good. Phenomenally written. Absorbing and original, it was also delicate yet unflinching. This is a love story of a different kind, that seeks to show how we measure different kinds of love against each other. The cleverness of Emezi is that she demands we respect all of them, especially the ones that challenge us the most, as a way of illuminating our blind spots. Sometimes we know someone so intimately, with a love so strong, but we will always see them within that prism and so in the fog of our love we miss things. So much of what forms our relationships with people are the pieces of them that we don’t see, and it’s those pieces that Emezi wants to render visible. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Incest, Death, Violence, Infidelity, Grief, and Transphobia

Minor: Infertility and Domestic abuse

thepassivebookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Incest, Blood, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Death, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

tea_kettle's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.25

amazing story, beautifully written, and one i would read again despite the heartbreak. However, the mildly (and later very graphically) incestuous themes were pretty uncomfortable to get through, and i don’t think they necessarily needed to be that way. Still, it was a great story, and i’m glad it was told, especially by a writer so skilled. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Hate crime, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Deportation, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Vomit, Infertility, and Rape

sha's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Blood, Eating disorder, Death, Incest, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse