Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

27 reviews

gm_vak's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

albernikolauras's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

The words rolled off of the page in this book. It starts off with Vivek's dead body on their mother's steps, and builds outwards. Bouncing around through time and from different people's memories of Vivek. Emotion dripped off the page as you slowly pick up momentum to discover how Vivek died.

This book was uncomfortable to sit with at times, beautiful, full of pain, full of joy. It was about being yourself and how that can put you at risk. It is a book to sit with or read/listen to when you can focus on it because Vivek deserves that level of consideration.

I am not sure what separates this book from being 5 stars. I just didn't end up quite feeling as connected to it as expected. I think I wanted more Vivek (which might be because everyone wanted more of them). Perhaps it was the discomfort of sitting in the grief of this book. Either way, I would strongly recommend this for anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Miscarriage

lilymurph's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Grief

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

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

Minor: Ableism

noshelf_control's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• 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: Death and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Gore, Infertility, and Infidelity

ambersbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.75

I struggled to pay attention to this one. The ending, however, socked a punch. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, and Transphobia

natverse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

How do I give this more than five stars? Beautiful writing, beautiful story. Is it possible to be pre-sad about a sad, but satisfying ending? You already know what's coming, but the reading journey there was so well done. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Animal death and Toxic relationship