Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

31 reviews

nicolaparty's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia

Moderate: Infidelity and Sexual content

Minor: Domestic abuse, Animal death, and Blood

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

davidrb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

2.5

Would have been a solid 4 stars (great writing, nuanced characters) if not for the

incest that goes uncriticized and often romanticized.

Unnecessary and made it a really difficult read for me personally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Outing, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, and Violence

sylvestra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Outing, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Deadnaming, Death of parent, and Infertility

featherbrain's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Transphobia, and Death

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Racism, Outing, Grief, Death of parent, and Blood

starla's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective 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

4.5

This was a breathtaking novel. The characters are rendered beautifully and sympathetically, without shying away from their flaws.  It was very quick to read but rich with detail about the characters and their lives. Be warned though, it is emotionally heavy and there is an absolute gut-punch of a twist right at the end of the novel.  The final scenes made me cry. The only thing I can say is that I wish it were longer.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent

emmeline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

2.0

Emezi's writing is incredible. I was fully willing to give this five stars but the incest tanked the rating. In my opinion, it wasn't necessary for the plot, changing Vivek and Osita's relationship from cousins/considering each other brothers to just childhood friends would have had the same effect on the plot and would have removed the incest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

egmamaril's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Violence, Sexual content, and Biphobia

Moderate: Animal death and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent

tina94's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, and Transphobia

theengineerisreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

"Love and guilt sometimes taste the same, you know."

I wish I can write a decent review that will give justice like how Akwaeki Emezi wrote this book.

The Death of Vivek Oji is Talk Bookish to Me's February admins' pick and I can't thank them enough for choosing this book because this one saved me from a possible slump.

I'm familiar when this one released last year and became a BOTM title but I haven't heard enough buzz about it, unlike Akwaeki's debut, Freshwater, which has been the talk of the town for months. Not until I intentionally browsed the title in Goodreads and saw so many amazing reviews about the book.

As someone who easily gets influenced by others opinion (lol) this made me decide to try and start the audiobook and see why this is so highly-rated.

I guess I was overwhelmed with the ending but this book is definitely a poetry translated into crime fiction. I love how the mystery and suspense keeps on until the very last pages of the book without sacrificing the balance between the social commentary (about Nigeria and LGBTQ+) and other sub-plots (family drama, friendship, mental health, grief.)

Though the main premise of the book revolved on the mystery of Vivek Oji, the only son of Chika and Kavita, the revelation and pieces of the book left me astounded with how forms of love vary from one person to another.

Content warning: Death, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual Abuse, Riot, Blood

Overall, this book sealed the deal and delivered an unforgettable story which made me think about how are we progressing as a society.

RATING: 4.5stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Incest

Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual assault, and Violence