Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

6 reviews

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

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Transphobia

taratearex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

 This was beautiful, moving, and heartbreaking. I love Emezi's prose and storytelling so much, it is just so rich, vivid, and innovative.

I loved how this book was sort of told backwards as you get what happened in the beginning (and in the title) and then jump around in time getting vignettes and snapshots of this family's life in Nigeria. As the story unfolds we learn more and more about Vivek and every moment with Vivek felt too brief, which is even more heartbreaking as you know how his story ends, and the why just pushes the story forward.

As much as I liked all the different characters and perspectives, I did find it a bit hard to follow, this is often how I am with a lot of characters/shifting POV though, and I just kept wanting more of Vivek's story- Emezi just created such a dynamic character that shines though so strongly even through brief moments. I have to say I did struggle with the fact that there is a relationship between cousins here, I can appreciate the story as it is, but it did sort of keep me at arms length with the emotional connection to them. Overall, it's a stunning and memorable book. The audiobook is really good.

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Content Warnings

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

agustdefault's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

I absolutely love the writing style of this author. def a new must read. this is the kind of book that will stay with me for a long time. 

okay. it would have been 5 stars if it wasnt for the incest plotline. however, i love everything wlse about this book. it was such a hard read but truly rewarding. what i have thought about most since the ending is the way nnemdi died. it is expected to be a hate crime and while it is clearly a good thing she did not get attacked, the ending confuses me. the way she dies is so simple and insignificant to her life. it feels unnatural that she would die in such a mundane manner when her life was so full of controversy. but perhaps this was intentional? a death that is so normal, that could happen to anyone. a death that is not unique to her because her life did not warrant a violent end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Death, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Infidelity, Animal death, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Deadnaming, and Religious bigotry

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Eating disorder and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Miscarriage, Infertility, Rape, War, and Vomit

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