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A review by samarakroeger
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
this book is MESSY. like, I've never read anything nearly as messy. and I'm not talking about writing execution here (although I'm having a real hard time seeing the purported 'literary merit' of this book). the main characters are awful, self-absorbed people severely lacking in empathy or a regard for how their actions will hurt others.
I thought this book had a promising beginning. I wanted it to talk about grief, queerness, money, Blackness, compulsory heterosexuality, female friendship ... the list goes on. what I got was an extremely surface level romance between two incredibly beautiful people who have an insta-lovey connection with chemistry that I personally never sensed. maybe I was too icked out by the HUGE age gap and the constant reminders that he could be her father.
it wasn't even funny. like, come on. I require a bit of banter in my romance books, even if they're not all happiness and sunshine. I firmly believe it is possible to talk about grief (in more depth, too) in a romance book and also include some humor or wittiness or cleverness or something other than just mentioning the beauty of the two despicable main characters all the time. I would have been fine with Emezi just leaning into the campness of it all and going full wattpad mafia romance (no morals there!) in a fun and unbelievable way (key word: FUN. YMAFODWYB was not fun).
I kept hoping there'd be some redemption of morality where Feyi would start calling herself out on her shit and get out of that mansion and run back to her friend Joy and call out how horrible and toxic the plot was, but alas, stereotypical romance ending I shall settle for. at least the book was short.
I thought this book had a promising beginning. I wanted it to talk about grief, queerness, money, Blackness, compulsory heterosexuality, female friendship ... the list goes on. what I got was an extremely surface level romance between two incredibly beautiful people who have an insta-lovey connection with chemistry that I personally never sensed. maybe I was too icked out by the HUGE age gap and the constant reminders that he could be her father.
it wasn't even funny. like, come on. I require a bit of banter in my romance books, even if they're not all happiness and sunshine. I firmly believe it is possible to talk about grief (in more depth, too) in a romance book and also include some humor or wittiness or cleverness or something other than just mentioning the beauty of the two despicable main characters all the time. I would have been fine with Emezi just leaning into the campness of it all and going full wattpad mafia romance (no morals there!) in a fun and unbelievable way (key word: FUN. YMAFODWYB was not fun).
I kept hoping there'd be some redemption of morality where Feyi would start calling herself out on her shit and get out of that mansion and run back to her friend Joy and call out how horrible and toxic the plot was, but alas, stereotypical romance ending I shall settle for. at least the book was short.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Biphobia, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Death