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writingcaia's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Fuck!!!
I’m slightly speechless.
It’s 5am I’ve started the book around midnight and yeah I haven’t stopped to even scroll through Instagram.
Spellbound by this book which is now my favourite of the four I’ve read from Emezi, fuck one of my favourite romance books ever, one of my fave books ever!
Wow!
How do you mend broken heart, a broken soul, a life interrupted? You die a little, a lot, and then you fuck up, you go carefully but alive, you find a way to live on, and if you’re lucky you find an unseen fork in the road that only showed itself because your chosen road was interrupted by life being so fucking cruel.
I didn’t know anything about the book going in beside it being a romance and I won’t attempt to blurb it, it’s pointless and would give too much away. Blindness is better. To feel the raw power of the story and the words the author wove together.
Brilliant!
P. S.: I’ve read comments about the plausibility of this story. Fuck most romance books seem implausible, but really most aren’t, not really, I’ve found that in life things get real messy and sometimes they workout and sometimes they don’t. This to say, why couldn’t this be possible? I’ve heard and read so many real life stories that are so insanely fantastic that not even books come close so be brave and believe it’s possible, life it’s so much more interesting that way.
I’m slightly speechless.
It’s 5am I’ve started the book around midnight and yeah I haven’t stopped to even scroll through Instagram.
Spellbound by this book which is now my favourite of the four I’ve read from Emezi, fuck one of my favourite romance books ever, one of my fave books ever!
Wow!
How do you mend broken heart, a broken soul, a life interrupted? You die a little, a lot, and then you fuck up, you go carefully but alive, you find a way to live on, and if you’re lucky you find an unseen fork in the road that only showed itself because your chosen road was interrupted by life being so fucking cruel.
I didn’t know anything about the book going in beside it being a romance and I won’t attempt to blurb it, it’s pointless and would give too much away. Blindness is better. To feel the raw power of the story and the words the author wove together.
Brilliant!
P. S.: I’ve read comments about the plausibility of this story. Fuck most romance books seem implausible, but really most aren’t, not really, I’ve found that in life things get real messy and sometimes they workout and sometimes they don’t. This to say, why couldn’t this be possible? I’ve heard and read so many real life stories that are so insanely fantastic that not even books come close so be brave and believe it’s possible, life it’s so much more interesting that way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content and Blood
Minor: Death of parent
bootrat's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Car accident and Blood
Minor: Homophobia
ell_n's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Blood
kristinajoy07's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Death, and Grief
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book made me mad.
First, the good.
Akwaeke Emezi’s prose is, as always, gorgeous and poetic and capable of hitting me in ways I’ve never even thought about before.
Feyi’s grief and pain and joy and messiness are written with so much heart and sensitivity and depth of feeling. She was a wonderful character to spend this time with. And I even related to her in some sweet and painful and messy ways.
Despite the age gap, etc, Alim is such a fantastic love interest, and, despite my qualms with certain things, one of the most well-written bisexual men I’ve encountered in fiction. I adore him.
This is very much a romance novel, but it’s a little bit less of one than Emezi would like to admit, I think. The main focus here is on grief and new growth, and the characters work through those things beautifully. It’s also single POV, and the love interest isn’t introduced til over a quarter of the way in, and that makes it read very unconventionally for a romance novel.
My big gripe here is that this novel’s approach to sex is SHOCKINGLY cisheteronormative for a book with bisexual leads written by a trans author. I’ve noticed a weird amount of bioessentialism and internalized transphobia in all of Emezi’s adult fiction, and this one is no exception. Also, what’s with the biphobia in Joy’s part of the story? Super weird.
Nasir and Lorraine are also super homophobic and the book kinda brushes that off a lot.
And I wish that we’d gotten one or two more real conversations between Feyi and Alim. I felt a bit lost in the sauce of the poetics at time at the expense of the characters.
I would still like to get Joy’s book, though, and I WOULD watch a movie of this. It made me uncomfortable at times, but it was oh so very fun and messy and delightful.
First, the good.
Akwaeke Emezi’s prose is, as always, gorgeous and poetic and capable of hitting me in ways I’ve never even thought about before.
Feyi’s grief and pain and joy and messiness are written with so much heart and sensitivity and depth of feeling. She was a wonderful character to spend this time with. And I even related to her in some sweet and painful and messy ways.
Despite the age gap, etc, Alim is such a fantastic love interest, and, despite my qualms with certain things, one of the most well-written bisexual men I’ve encountered in fiction. I adore him.
This is very much a romance novel, but it’s a little bit less of one than Emezi would like to admit, I think. The main focus here is on grief and new growth, and the characters work through those things beautifully. It’s also single POV, and the love interest isn’t introduced til over a quarter of the way in, and that makes it read very unconventionally for a romance novel.
My big gripe here is that this novel’s approach to sex is SHOCKINGLY cisheteronormative for a book with bisexual leads written by a trans author. I’ve noticed a weird amount of bioessentialism and internalized transphobia in all of Emezi’s adult fiction, and this one is no exception. Also, what’s with the biphobia in Joy’s part of the story? Super weird.
Nasir and Lorraine are also super homophobic and the book kinda brushes that off a lot.
And I wish that we’d gotten one or two more real conversations between Feyi and Alim. I felt a bit lost in the sauce of the poetics at time at the expense of the characters.
I would still like to get Joy’s book, though, and I WOULD watch a movie of this. It made me uncomfortable at times, but it was oh so very fun and messy and delightful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Grief
Moderate: Biphobia, Car accident, Child death, Death, Homophobia, and Violence
displacedcactus's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I don't normally go in for the dramatic, messy side of the contemporary romance genre. I'd passed over this book a few times because "MC falls for her current squeeze's dad" just isn't my kind of thing. But all of my library holds were taking *forever* to come in, and this was available, and I'd enjoyed Pet and Bitter earlier this year.
Just so we're clear: The only thing this book has in common with Pet and Bitter is that both involve talented Black artists. Do NOT hand this one to your YA-reading kids.
Emezi is a very talented author. The language in this book is simply lush and beautiful. The food and art descriptions are dazzling. So I went along for the messy ride, even if I disagreed with most of the choices that Feyi made. If you like a romance that has lots of big emotions and a hint of the forbidden, then you'll probably enjoy this. And if you have to read something messy and spicy for some sort of reading challenge, this would be a good way to dip your toe into a genre you normally avoid.
Just so we're clear: The only thing this book has in common with Pet and Bitter is that both involve talented Black artists. Do NOT hand this one to your YA-reading kids.
Emezi is a very talented author. The language in this book is simply lush and beautiful. The food and art descriptions are dazzling. So I went along for the messy ride, even if I disagreed with most of the choices that Feyi made. If you like a romance that has lots of big emotions and a hint of the forbidden, then you'll probably enjoy this. And if you have to read something messy and spicy for some sort of reading challenge, this would be a good way to dip your toe into a genre you normally avoid.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Car accident, Cursing, and Death
Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Blood
Minor: Misogyny, Death of parent, and Child death
All of the major characters in this book are black and they use the slangy "a" ending version of the n word to refer to each other *a lot*.honeyenbee's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
tense
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Death, Blood, and Sexual content
Moderate: Incest, Cursing, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia
on_your_raedar's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
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
3.0
This is a moment that I say that I was not the target audience for this book. I found it cringy and messy but not in a way that I would have continued outside of audiobook form. Romance is not preferred genre but I heard such great things about the book. I also found the plot to be meh and the way grief was handled was interesting. I do really appreciate the moments of "selfishness" the characters experienced with actively moving toward things that made them happy because thats what they needed.
Even not being my genre, THE WRITING IS EVERYTHING! The author is a phenomenal writer and I absolutely see the hype. The writing is why this is 3 stars and not 1.5-2.
Even not being my genre, THE WRITING IS EVERYTHING! The author is a phenomenal writer and I absolutely see the hype. The writing is why this is 3 stars and not 1.5-2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Car accident and Mental illness
Minor: Death of parent and Blood
fromthefoxhole's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.0
Feyi lost her husband 5 years ago, and has been coming to terms with it ever since. One particularly reckless evening leads her to Milan, who leads her to Nasir, a sweet and charming man who offers to whisk her away to the Caribbean and get her art in front of people who could make all of her dreams come true.
She commits to going, just as friends, only to realize upon arrival that his "rich af dad" is actually celebrity chef, Alim Blake. Not only that, but there's something raw and magnetic between herself and Alim, which is less than conducive to her friendship with Nasir.
When an opportunity opens up to stay on the island longer to do a personal piece, she jumps at the chance, hoping that it will boost her bank account and give her a chance to spend some one on one time with Alim.
I gotta be honest, this book is MESSY but also incredibly captivating. I didn't really agree with many of the choices made by the characters, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from watching everything unravel. I particularly enjoyed Feyi's descriptions of grief, the way her art pieced together the immense love she carried with tragedy.
She commits to going, just as friends, only to realize upon arrival that his "rich af dad" is actually celebrity chef, Alim Blake. Not only that, but there's something raw and magnetic between herself and Alim, which is less than conducive to her friendship with Nasir.
When an opportunity opens up to stay on the island longer to do a personal piece, she jumps at the chance, hoping that it will boost her bank account and give her a chance to spend some one on one time with Alim.
I gotta be honest, this book is MESSY but also incredibly captivating. I didn't really agree with many of the choices made by the characters, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from watching everything unravel. I particularly enjoyed Feyi's descriptions of grief, the way her art pieced together the immense love she carried with tragedy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Cursing, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Biphobia
ariel_marie's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Blood