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

challenging emotional reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is very very good. Phenomenally written. Absorbing and original, it was also delicate yet unflinching. This is a love story of a different kind, that seeks to show how we measure different kinds of love against each other. The cleverness of Emezi is that she demands we respect all of them, especially the ones that challenge us the most, as a way of illuminating our blind spots. Sometimes we know someone so intimately, with a love so strong, but we will always see them within that prism and so in the fog of our love we miss things. So much of what forms our relationships with people are the pieces of them that we don’t see, and it’s those pieces that Emezi wants to render visible. 
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