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zombiezami's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Outing
Minor: Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
bek_p87's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Car accident
Moderate: Racial slurs and Violence
nefariousbee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
okay for real, Emezi is a wonderful author, I absolutely adore their characters and the way they portray relationships. in their most raw, messy state. what I missed here is hard to out I to words; I just wanted *more*. more messy, raw feelings. everything happened too all at once for my tastes. but i still absolutely loved it and I think I'm gonna read the rest of their books as well, now that I only have two more to go.
also I gotta say, I was really surprised by the average rating. what is here not to love? I'm gonna read some reviews later but I have string suspicions it's the purity culture and pearl clutching that's so prevalent in the younger generation again and I don't fuck with that. fiction is such a great place to figure out fucked up situations and Emezi does just that here. and they do it well.
Graphic: Biphobia, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Alcohol
pia_h's review
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Racial slurs, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Alcohol
ecster's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Car accident
Minor: Violence
venetiana's review against another edition
THE ORIGINAL BOOK IS BRILLIANT. ✨
This explanation is about the German audio book:
⬇️
******
The *German* version is badly translated. I cringed!
Admittedly, while the narrator has an amazing voice, the German audiobook was also not well read, and some things were just pronounced wrong, which kept pulling me out of the story.
Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism
dschwartz5's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death and Car accident
Minor: Homophobia and Violence
luizalikesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Grief
Minor: Violence and Blood
rhiasofia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Car accident
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
First, the good.
Akwaeke Emezi’s prose is, as always, gorgeous and poetic and capable of hitting me in ways I’ve never even thought about before.
Feyi’s grief and pain and joy and messiness are written with so much heart and sensitivity and depth of feeling. She was a wonderful character to spend this time with. And I even related to her in some sweet and painful and messy ways.
Despite the age gap, etc, Alim is such a fantastic love interest, and, despite my qualms with certain things, one of the most well-written bisexual men I’ve encountered in fiction. I adore him.
This is very much a romance novel, but it’s a little bit less of one than Emezi would like to admit, I think. The main focus here is on grief and new growth, and the characters work through those things beautifully. It’s also single POV, and the love interest isn’t introduced til over a quarter of the way in, and that makes it read very unconventionally for a romance novel.
My big gripe here is that this novel’s approach to sex is SHOCKINGLY cisheteronormative for a book with bisexual leads written by a trans author. I’ve noticed a weird amount of bioessentialism and internalized transphobia in all of Emezi’s adult fiction, and this one is no exception. Also, what’s with the biphobia in Joy’s part of the story? Super weird.
Nasir and Lorraine are also super homophobic and the book kinda brushes that off a lot.
And I wish that we’d gotten one or two more real conversations between Feyi and Alim. I felt a bit lost in the sauce of the poetics at time at the expense of the characters.
I would still like to get Joy’s book, though, and I WOULD watch a movie of this. It made me uncomfortable at times, but it was oh so very fun and messy and delightful.
Graphic: Blood and Grief
Moderate: Biphobia, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Violence, and Car accident