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

emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.0

So let me start off by saying the writing and prose in the story was beautiful and poetic in a way that made the plot of the book secondary. Second, don’t read this and expect a traditional romance book. That’s NOT what this is. 

“She didn’t have to end up with anyone, no matter how pretty the picture looked to strangers.”

The story was slow to move along, but I enjoyed seeing life through Feyi’s eyes as she grappled with survivor’s guilt, her grief, and how she tried to find a meaning of her life.

Feyi’s an artist who deals primarily in blood - a result of having survived a car crash that killed her husband. She’s reckless with her one-night stands. 

The descriptions of her art pieces and the 3D exhibition that she sets up are so beautiful and tragic I had to pause for a second. I couldn’t imagine seeing something so beautiful in real life and really liked the descriptions of those. 

“If she could do tonight, she could do anything—the rest of a life, for example.”

The second half of the story has been described as “messy” and I don’t want to mention too much without spoiling the book, but I like that Feyi followed her heart, as cliche as it sounds. 

Was she a messy character or did she not give a damn what other people expected of her? 

Also I think it’s unfair to judge her on a “relationship” she didn’t even consent to be in. She had told Namir she didn’t want to date seriously. His expectations of her are not her problem.


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