The Death of Vivek Oji

KnitAFett reviewed The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Decent enough story.

3 stars

I felt like the actual story behind this was very good. It covers homophobia, has trans representation, and family members stuck in their ways due to tradition. It got overshadowed for me with the love story being incestuous. It did not have a major impact on the story, and I feel like it could have played out exactly the same if they were friends that had grown up together instead of first cousins. I wish we had heard a little more from Vivek through the story. Almost everything we know of their story is told through stories from others.

callan reviewed The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

in between days

4 stars

I love Akwaeke Emezi, and this book is a fine example of why. The dualities and boundary-straddling on so many different levels of this novel are fascinating to think about. I want to expand on that, but there's kind of no good way to do that without spoiling the ending.

The narrative structure of the book is interesting and unique, flipping between a handful of first-person chapters and a third person story that gives a panoptic view of the characters at the heart of the novel. My only complaint about that is it feels like we don't get a chance to know everything we want to know about everyone involved, but it's a short book, so it's understandable.

I did like the story and structure of Freshwater a bit better, but the exploration of assumptions and things that aren't quite what they seem in Vivek Oji were gorgeously crafted and …

I love Akwaeke Emezi, and this book is a fine example of why. The dualities and boundary-straddling on so many different levels of this novel are fascinating to think about. I want to expand on that, but there's kind of no good way to do that without spoiling the ending.

The narrative structure of the book is interesting and unique, flipping between a handful of first-person chapters and a third person story that gives a panoptic view of the characters at the heart of the novel. My only complaint about that is it feels like we don't get a chance to know everything we want to know about everyone involved, but it's a short book, so it's understandable.

I did like the story and structure of Freshwater a bit better, but the exploration of assumptions and things that aren't quite what they seem in Vivek Oji were gorgeously crafted and I sailed right through reading it.

Ginny Wood

rated it

Sept. 9, 2022