Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

35 reviews

shoohoob's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Beautifully written book. I flew through it and the characters were fascinating to me. That being said, the incest was really prominent and almost made it DNF. 

Spoiler

I’m not really sure why Vivek and Osita couldn’t have just been close childhood friends instead of cousins. Maybe it was just supposed to add to taboo life Vivek was living, but it was really uncomfortable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, Incest, and Homophobia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Blood, Infidelity, and Outing

the_vegan_bookworm's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

 Akwaeke Emezi is a masterful storyteller and writer. Every book they write is a gift to experience, and this one is no different. The last 20% of the story, in particular, made me sob. The entire novel has such a a deeply lyrical and emotional story about the way we relate to others and how well we know the peiple we live. I think we can all see ourselves in the characters with their emotional depths. Akwaeke is so talented at describing grief and making that raw, difficult emotion something they can communicate through their stories. It is such a talent.

The book is heavy in many ways, so please be mindful of the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Sexual content, Grief, Medical content, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Death

For context on the incest tag:

Spoiler

The incest takes place consensually between cousins.

stephmcoakley's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Death, Blood, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Outing, Sexual content, Transphobia, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

alexisgarcia's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book made me so incredibly angry. this book was gorgeous. the writing was phenomenal, and the trans representation was so beautiful and emotional. and then it was all ruined by incest. there is so much discourse about the lgbtqia+ community and trans rights, this story was truly beautiful and could make such an impact on people. it is all completely discounted and tarnished by the incest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Transphobia, Death, Hate crime, Outing, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Sexual content, Bullying, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

angievansprang's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. I absolutely loved this. A gut-wrenching ode to queerness and love, this book and these characters will be with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Incest, Transphobia, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Eating disorder, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, and Hate crime

Minor: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, and Infertility

lizcastner's review

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Vomit, Homophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Islamophobia, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, and Pregnancy

directorpurry's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexism, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Xenophobia and Fire/Fire injury

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Grief and identity

Potentially spoilers!!

‘Some people can't see softness without wanting to hurt it.’

‘if you didn't tell other people, was it real or was it just something the two of you were telling yourselves?’

‘“I’m not sure my belief matters," he says. "If it is, it is, whether I believe it or not."’

‘ No one else could feel that lifetime of loss. No one else had lost him more than she had, yet they cried in front of her as if it meant something. They're still children, Kavita tried to tell herself, not mature enough to do her the courtesy of keeping their tears in their bedrooms, among their own complete families. But still she thought of them as selfish brats without home training or compassion or empathy, and this in turn made her angry at these girls she knew she still loved, somewhere under the rage and pain and the grief that she felt belonged to her and only her.’

‘“We can't keep insisting he was who we thought he was, when he wanted to be someone else and he died being that person, Chika. We failed, don't you see We didn't see him and we failed."’

‘when you've stood on ground and known your child's bones are rotting beneath you, rage and ego fade like dust in a strong wind.’

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Vomit, Miscarriage, Rape, Blood, Homophobia, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Violence

30something_reads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

You win again, Emezi.

3 for 3 on the ugly crying. This one probably tops all the others. I'm literally crying right now as I write this. Everything was so beautiful and devastating all at once. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Dysphoria, Grief, and Sexism

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Incest, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Bullying, and Blood

bookish_afrolatina's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.25

This book was pretty devastating. The many povs were so realistic and I felt like Emezi was really patient with creating each narrative. This was a soulful read. I probably won’t read it again but I’d recommend it to those who have already read other Emezi works like You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty because both books are quite messy. Otherwise, this may not be the book for you.

Spoiler

This may seem annoying to some but I could have done without the incest element here. I was also surprised by how many sex scenes there were (not full blown but at least partially described) but such is life, I suppose! The ending was very unexpected for me which made it all the more heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Incest, Grief, and Domestic abuse