Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

49 reviews

directorpurry's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexism, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Xenophobia and Fire/Fire injury

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.75

Grief and identity

Potentially spoilers!!

‘Some people can't see softness without wanting to hurt it.’

‘if you didn't tell other people, was it real or was it just something the two of you were telling yourselves?’

‘“I’m not sure my belief matters," he says. "If it is, it is, whether I believe it or not."’

‘ No one else could feel that lifetime of loss. No one else had lost him more than she had, yet they cried in front of her as if it meant something. They're still children, Kavita tried to tell herself, not mature enough to do her the courtesy of keeping their tears in their bedrooms, among their own complete families. But still she thought of them as selfish brats without home training or compassion or empathy, and this in turn made her angry at these girls she knew she still loved, somewhere under the rage and pain and the grief that she felt belonged to her and only her.’

‘“We can't keep insisting he was who we thought he was, when he wanted to be someone else and he died being that person, Chika. We failed, don't you see We didn't see him and we failed."’

‘when you've stood on ground and known your child's bones are rotting beneath you, rage and ego fade like dust in a strong wind.’

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Vomit, Miscarriage, Rape, Blood, Homophobia, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Violence

30something_reads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

You win again, Emezi.

3 for 3 on the ugly crying. This one probably tops all the others. I'm literally crying right now as I write this. Everything was so beautiful and devastating all at once. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Dysphoria, Grief, and Sexism

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Incest, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Bullying, and Blood

bookish_afrolatina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.25

This book was pretty devastating. The many povs were so realistic and I felt like Emezi was really patient with creating each narrative. This was a soulful read. I probably won’t read it again but I’d recommend it to those who have already read other Emezi works like You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty because both books are quite messy. Otherwise, this may not be the book for you.

This may seem annoying to some but I could have done without the incest element here. I was also surprised by how many sex scenes there were (not full blown but at least partially described) but such is life, I suppose! The ending was very unexpected for me which made it all the more heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Incest, Grief, and Domestic abuse

knhall14's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

agnesbebon's review against another edition

5.0

Akwaeke Emezi knows how to break my heart and tell a beautiful story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Grief, Homophobia, and Hate crime

mschmidt's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

This short novel is filled with power, connects the moments of these lives in one flowing river. The imperfections within each character are put on display with unrivaled compassion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Bullying, Grief, Incest, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Child death, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, and Transphobia

Moderate: Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

laurareads87's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

The Death of Vivek Oji is the fourth of Emezi’s works that I’ve read, and they never cease to amaze me; in this case, I’ve been left sobbing in some complicated combination of devastation and hope. Knowing based on the title and the first page of the text that Vivek would die, the reader is immersed in Vivek’s world – Vivek’s family and friend relationships especially, and to some extent a broader socio-political context – and circumstances surrounding the death are slowly revealed. Emezi’s character development is absolutely impeccable; I felt mother Kavita’s grief in my bones and Ossita’s heartbreak with every fibre of myself. Nothing I could possibly write in a review will capture how I feel about this book. 

My content warnings contain something that could be considered a spoiler; I've chosen to put them here.

Content warnings: violence, death, injury detail, homophobia, transphobia, consensual sexual relationship between cousins

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Death, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

morganperks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

did not appreciate the emotions this book made me feel. I was crying by the end (when am I not tho?)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Outing, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Medical content, Self harm, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Alcoholism, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, War, Death of parent, Transphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Child abuse, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Blood and Drug use

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

The Death of Vivek Oji is a heartbreaking book. It was also the perfect book to read through Transgender Awareness Week and Remembrance Day. It's far too easy to dismiss the transphobia that runs rampant in the world. Vivek/Nnemdi's story - mirroring parts of Akwaeke Emezi's experience - tells of the painful stages of discovery of one's identity in a world that would deny her the truth of her identity and would kill her for it.

There's a single sticking point though. Most this book is wonderful, but there's some strong, graphic, repeated, unopposed incest. If not for that, I'd give the book five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Incest, Alcohol, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Transphobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death, Hate crime, and Murder