Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

20 reviews

sonyareadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Transphobia, Violence, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Rape

marisa_n's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Gore, Death, Incest, Transphobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Infidelity, Bullying, Sexual violence, Outing, and Incest

savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Vivek's gender fluidity is the point around which this novel's narrative pivots. Growing up in small-town Nigeria, Vivek dissociates from their assigned gender from a young age. Vivek's depression and  gender expression is constantly misinterpreted by family members as a mysterious illness. As the novel progresses, Emezi explores the heartbreaking ways that misunderstandings can damage relationships and life itself.

Nobody else writes the way Akwaeke Emezi does. In each of their books, their empathetic portrayal of the joys and pain of life feels like an unveiling of universal truths. The Death of Vivek Oji is no exception to this pattern in their work. Vivek, Osita, and their loved ones are all fully-fleshed, fully-flawed characters. True to life, their suffering often comes from ignorance and repressed feelings. 

I would have rated this five stars if not for the incest. I just could not understand why the primary relationship in this story had to be incestual. Not only are Vivek and Osita cousins but - as they often note themselves - they were raised as brothers. Couldn't we have been given a powerful romance without it happening with a blood relative? Maybe I'm being a prude but the inclusion of incest often took me out of an otherwise incredibly engaging story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Incest, and Grief

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury 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

cyrinw98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

Spoilers ahead:
1. I could've done without the incest plotline.
2. I wish it was longer
3. I felt the ending was anticlimactic.
4. I didn't understand the purpose of Ebinizer’s chapter.
Vivek Oji has to be one of my favorite literary characters. They were so vibrant and immediately jumped off of the pages. Emezi did an amazing job depicting the dangers of homophobia, societal pressures. They really illustrated the prominent impact that Vivek had on the people around them in life and in death. I could feel the love and tension throughput this book. This is one of the only books that made me cry. Hats off to voice narrators as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Miscarriage, Transphobia, War, Blood, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Violence, and Xenophobia

julpank's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Incest, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

miachalupa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

skudiklier's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

This book was stunning and heartbreaking and beautiful and painful and surprising. I read it for a book club that isn't meeting for several weeks (I always read book club books too early accidentally haha), but this time I'm glad because I want to think about it a lot before I'll know what to say. I'd definitely recommend it though, it's very good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Xenophobia, Violence, Vomit, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Islamophobia, Infidelity, Infertility, Incest, Homophobia, Hate crime, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Deadnaming, and Bullying

Moderate: Abortion, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Eating disorder, Cursing, and Rape

Minor: Ableism

leekaufman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Violence, Incest, Sexual assault, and Mental illness

birdbrainbooks's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4/4.5 - What a powerful book. What a sad book. I’ve wanted to read Emezi’s work for some time now and can definitely see why they have garnered so much deserved praise.
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The themes explored in this one are deep and relevant to all: loss of a child and loved one; discovering your own identity; harm caused by cultural and religious beliefs to LGBTQIA+ people; handling (or mishandling) the coming-of-gender journey of someone close to you. Plus I loved the narrative structure, loosely switching POVs while never getting confusing. Cried towards the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Homophobia