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

3.25

I would like to start this review by pointing out that most of the angry one-star reviewers are over the top. This is not a simple story with black-and-white characters. Although there are blurred lines, there is no cheating. I think context is important to this story—there is a lot going on underneath the obvious. And it’s easy as heck to judge from behind a computer a world away. There are real feelings displayed by the story. And I think the characters were equally real. 

I can’t tell if the lingo is just out of date or if the dialogue felt uneasy. There was a lot of slang that didn’t feel natural, BUT I’m very white and I know how white people will steal from black culture and burn it into the ground. So I cannot speak on it much, but it’s possible the lingo IS true to the characters, and I’ve just been burnt out on its use by other white people.

I think I wanted a bit more of a natural flow to the relationship between Feyi and Alim. They barely knew one another! I think the before: them joking or discussing things, etc. could’ve made it feel smoother. 

As it was, their relationship did seem unfair to pursue over his children. I was kind of with them. Although they were entirely unfair to Feyi. Nasir, especially, really frustrated me. He acted like a fuckboy when she didn’t deserve that. Also I’m annoyed with how the kids had handled (and continued to handle) their father’s sexuality.


All that aside, I think this was a lovely book about the tide of grief and loss. How it never goes away; just recedes temporarily. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings