A review by onemorebookpodcast
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

4.0

'The Death of Vivek Oji' by Akwaeke Emezi'

This was a re-read for me & am glad that I didn’t review it the first time that I read it. That was back when it had just come out & there was a lot of noise (good) around it. So I appreciated it even more now when the 'hype' is over.

The book follows the life of the recently deceased 'Vivek Oji', his childhood, a backstory into his parents' relationship before he was born, his friendships, his 'coming into his' sexuality, his demise & the effect of that on his loved ones.

I loved how simple the writing was, it made reading & following the storyline easy. I could also keep up with the characters & I appreciated the fact that the side characters were given side stories which weren’t too deep, that they would distract me from the main storyline.

I did not like 'Osita' at all. I kind of felt like I read more of him & his feelings than those of Vivek. He was giving 'Main Character' energy in a book that wasn’t about him. I also felt like he didn’t deserve the title 'Bhai' because he was never his brother's keeper. Everyone in the book was 'serving' him & his feelings in a way & I agreed with Elizabeth's judgement of his character. He got away with a lot. Anytime I got to his part, I was like, "Osita please get your own book!"