Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

54 reviews

martinza's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.75

Beautiful, I cried a lot

A few weird scenes feeling a bit off

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Transphobia, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.75

Not quite sure how I feel about this one yet but Akwaeke Emezi's writing style is SO SO beautiful. They tug on your hearystrings like a poet. I think. the incest had a lot to do with isolation, the isolation of immigrants, the isolation of queer individuals. But the reveal of how Vivek died feels weird. Anticlimatic? I can understand the author not wanting to actually harm the character. Also there was a chapter from the POV of someone who we never see again that felt out of place. But still a beautiful book and worth a read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Transphobia, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Islamophobia

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

Moderate: Homophobia and Fire/Fire injury

summerb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Transphobia, Grief, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

orireading's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.75

emotionally distraught 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Incest, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

There’s incest, be warned, it is a key part of the book and how the author creates an overall emotionally-charged and high-stakes narrative.

whatannikareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

EMEZI HIVE WE’RE HERE!! oh man oh man is this another banger. I don’t think anything can beat Freshwater for me and the experience reading that, but this book gave me the same verve to finish the book quickly and stay up past my bedtime bc I couldn’t put it down. What a culturally rich story that’s ripe full of lgbtq themes and both internal and external conflict. I think even though Vivek is the star, I can’t help but admire how Kavita is one of the most thoroughly written and thought out characters I’ve ever read. I can’t help but sympathize with her and be angry with her but understand and admire her love for her son.

But the things I didn’t really enjoy I couldn’t ignore, like the *big* intentional main controversial relationship; I have seen the reasoning for its inclusion but doesn’t mean it sat well with me ever. And also it felt like there were a lot of characters at times that could’ve been reduced; they weren’t as developed as they could have and sometimes I had trouble keeping up with who was who. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic to me and how it unfolds, but I’d be lying if Emezi’s writing didn’t have me in a chokehold. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

tree_hugging_ginge's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

random19379's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Incest, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

egg_cup's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

5.0

this book chewed me up and spat me out like a pomegranate seed I cried so hard during the last quarter of this book my eyes were sore and I had to lie silently and stare at the ceiling after I was finished for a while no thoughts head empty reduced to just an absolute shell of a human. 

Vivek I love you; Akwaeke Emezi it is ON SIGHT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Eating disorder and Fire/Fire injury

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