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

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I just realised I hadn’t written a review for this, so let’s see if I remember it enough to summarise my thoughts.

I had a good time with this book. I really liked the way the discussion of grief and tools of dealing with grief were woven into the story in a gentle and normalised way, and how therapy was normalised. It explored finding yourself and love after a loss well and I felt for the characters when going through this. 

Feyi was kind of messy, as people have said, but I think that was to be expected given her experiences but I don’t think she was ever out of line and made her boundaries and expectations known. Also, it takes two to tango so she wasn’t the only one pursuing the relationship. In this sense, I did also like how consent was seamlessly woven into the story, particularly when it came to the “forbidden” romance aspect and testing the waters as to how much they each wanted the other to share. It didn’t feel forced, it didn’t blatantly scream consent but just normalised checking in with your partner and making sure what was happening was still okay. I also liked how their bisexuality wasn’t a core of their stories, it was just who they were. 

I did like the main couple but I just wished I was a bit more invested in that side of the story. Despite this, I enjoyed the story and really liked the other parts of this book. Once again, Akwaeke Emezi has written a wonderful story.
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