A review by sarahmcg
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.5

How did I read this book and end up cheering for the messy af FMC and the dad???

I guess for as much as I love a trope-filled rom-com, I can also really appreciate a complicated lit-fic love story, romance but also an exploration of grief, friendship, and art/creativity.

Read this if you love MESS, taboo/forbidden/age gap romance, finding love after loss, complicated FMC. 

The writing was very beautiful; poetic, with gorgeous descriptions of the tropical island mountain home, art, music, and food. This was my first read by Emezi and it won’t be my last.

The only critique I have is I totally understood the emotional connection that Feyi and Alim formed, but for some reason I still had a little bit of difficulty with the believability of their chemistry (not sure if it was maybe the age gap or something else?) - but overall I’d give 4.5⭐️

I want a book about Joy!!!

CW/TW: discussions of loss of spouse (in past but discussed throughout - 1) car accident 2) drowning), sexual content, descriptions of blood, domestic incident.
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