Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Death of Vivek Oji

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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pigeonsjones's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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deannareadsandsleeps's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

“I don’t mind anymore. I see how things work now, from this side. I was born and I died. I will come back. Somewhere, you see, in the river of time, I am already alive.“
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Now. I knew going in that this would be a sad read, yet I was still struck by how heavy my chest felt as I made my way through. Emezi provided us with a narrative that takes a deep look into the burden of how it feels to not belong. We watch, through the eyes of multiple characters, many flawed behaviors and decisions that make us uncomfortable, but also pulls out of us a sharp compassion that can leave clutching your chest. It must be a nearly inconceivable agony to be unable to live your full truth for fear of losing your love, your place, and perhaps, even your life. It’s not fair. Yet these are the stories to resonate with millions of people who identify as queer because they too suffer under that same weight. I feel it’s easy to look at these characters and some of the choices they make and go straight to judgement, but I implore you as readers, if able, to dig deeper than that. Look further and think to yourself: if my very existence was turmoil, what would I do to carve out a tiny slice, a crumb even, of peace for myself? Let a glimpse at the depths of that desperation open your eyes to bit of understanding. And Vivek Nnemdi Oji, my darling...you deserved so much more.
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Friends, I cannot stress enough the care you should take in reading this. The book, while beautifully written, is also incredibly heavy and deals with a plethora of triggering topics, some shown in passing, others pressed into. Please be careful. ♥️

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lennie_reads's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for my ARC.

I read Pet earlier this year and was utterly amazed so I knew when I saw this on NetGalley I had to request it. And now after reading this I know I need to read everything Emezi has ever or will ever write.

Once I started this I ended up reading it in one sitting; it's addictive. It's also visceral, gritty, raw, dark, uncomfortable, extremely upsetting and so so powerful.

It's hard to explain this book without giving away spoilers but the basic premise is that Vivek's body is found by his mother after he has been left on his doorstep wrapped in material.

From here we travel back in time to before Vivek's parents have met and the story builds from there.

I guess you would probably class this book as a mystery but not necessarily 'what happened to Vivek?' but 'who was Vivek and why did this happen?'.
We have different POVs from family members & friends, who build the story around Vivek, whilst also delving into their changing attitudes towards each other and life itself. I feel that Emezi is perfectly happy letting you make your own mind up about the characters and all of them are delightfully and distressingly complex. Also, for one reason or another, most of them have been pushed to the extreme - religious bigotry, internalised homophobia, over protectiveness, stigma against mental illness and more.

There is a huge focus on relationships in this book and it's a testament to Emezi's skills that you can route for a couple when there are a lot of complicated issues surrounding them.

This book delves into taboos, the life of niger-wives, found family vs blood family, embracing who you are and how devastatingly cruel life can be.

CW: Rape, incest, Mental illness, Transphobia, homophobia, death, religious extremism, physical abuse, violence, infidelity, death, rape, sexual assualt, sexual favours, hate crime, grief, domestic abuse, deadnaming

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annbutnotanne's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I need to read all of Akwaeke Emezi's work, and am somewhat embarrassed I hadn't heard of them sooner.

The Death of Vivek Oji is one of my favorite kinds of books, and so is going to be one of my favorite books of the year. You follow all these characters connected by a single thread, and watch as they live their lives, cope with their grief, and all their other problems.

Emezi does a fantastic job at painting such intimate portraits of every single character. You know the horrible parts of themselves, what they're struggling with, and why they decide to make what are ultimately regrettable choices. You don't necessarily agree or like said choices, but you understand why they made them, what led them here. This is about telling you every journey the characters make and why they go down the paths they do. How, ultimately, they all are interconnected by one thing: the death of Vivek Oji, the one character we only get small glimpses of yet feels all the more real because of it.

The dialogue is perfect, the writing is beautiful, and the tone in every scene is matched exactly with what's occurring. Emezi has a gift and I'm glad to be able to see what they've done with it.

If you pick this up, the audiobook is for sure the way to go. The performances the narrators give are incredible and deserve to be listened to.

I didn't think I'd love a book like this so late in the year. I'm happy to be wrong.

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maisierosereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with Awkaeke Emezi's writing as soon as I read Freshwater last year, so The Death of Vivek Oji was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020. From the first, one-sentence chapter I was hooked on the plot, and ended up reading the whole book in less than 48 hours.

The way this book is structured - with the mystery of how Vivek died, the events leading up to his death, and the way his death affects his loved ones - makes the story captivating even though you know from before you open this book that the titular character will die. The chapters are told from different points of view and from different points in time, with all of these perspectives coming together cohesively to form the whole story.

Emezi's writing style is as gorgeous as always, and their characters are beautiful in their imperfect complexity. The relationships between them are also beautiful, complex, and challenging. In their interview with Rivers Solomon for Greenlight Bookstore, Emezi talked about how they wanted to present these relationships as they were without telling the reader how to feel about them and leave the reactions up to the readers - I could definitely see and feel this when reading The Death of Vivek Oji, particularly in regards to the central relationship (which is consensual but incestuous).

As with their previous books, Emezi's writing is informed and influenced by personal experiences of growing up in Nigeria and their own intersecting identities. The influences from life - Igbo spirituality, the Nigerwives, the politial upheaval, the conflict between the different religious and ethnic groups - give this story a richness and realness that add to the compelling and emotive nature of the plot.

Overall, I enjoyed The Death of Vivek Oji just as much as I was expecting to and highly recommend it.

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