Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

206 reviews

barium_squirrel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Outing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

workingdaley's review against another edition

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

5.0

This book made me feel, deeply. It really makes me think of all of the moments of joy that we try to find, even when we are surrounded by tragedy. I am deeply fascinated by the characters and their motivations. Their moments of discovery, their moments of betrayal, their moments of joy, their moments of grief. Each of these characters carry a significant weight on their shoulder, and you can feel it in the way that they move through the world. But you can also feel how deeply they care for one another, and the lengths that they would go to protect one another. This is a deeply emotional story, but I feel like it's so relevant to the times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, Death, Blood, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Lesbophobia

Minor: Sexual harassment and Drug use

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. 

---

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

tess_me's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

Somehow scandalous and shocking but tender at the same time 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Incest, Transphobia, and Death

bookrecsondeck's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Incest, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual content

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Infertility and Domestic abuse

sundayfever's review against another edition

dark 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

Beautiful, heartbreaking. Very well written. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Incest, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Deadnaming, Death, Infidelity, Grief, and Sexual content

canascorner's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Homophobia, Death, and Sexual content

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Death of Vivek Oji feels like an extended meditation on queerness and transness.  In a country like Nigeria, where these identities are criminalized, it’s especially true for trans people that only they know what is best for them, though this will not stop well-meaning friends and family.  Emezi’s heartbreaking parable invites readers to imagine a world in which a trans person living freely is not “dancing with death.”  A world in which trans people are recognized as otherworldly gifts.  Born on the anniversary of his grandmother’s death, Vivek Oji was destined to be different

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Infidelity

Moderate: Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Infertility, Blood, Homophobia, Animal death, Death, and Sexual content

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Violence

flashandoutbreak's review

challenging dark 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? No

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Death, Animal death, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Outing, Sexual content, and Transphobia