Vivek is a half-Igbo half-Indian youth living in Nigeria who, as set out from the onset by the book's title, dies during a market riot and whose naked body, wrapped in cloth, is deposited outside his parents' home.
The story winds its way across time and narrators to bring us to what happened that fateful day. Other notable characters are his parents, auntie, uncle, cousin and grandmother and his mother's circle of non-Nigerian wives of Nigerian men and relative mixed offspring.

I found the book quite strong to begin with, but by the mid-way mark I started losing my belief in the story and characters, which made it more of a slog to reach the end. I enjoyed the sense of place and the food references wetted my appetite, but ultimately in terms of narrative arc it was fairly predictable.

In terms of quality of writing instead it was average (e.g. "Juju stared back at her as the news of his death ground to powder the pieces Elizabeth had left her heart in, until there was nothing remaining in her chest to come up...") and certain passages read more like a literal or poor translation than English, but perhaps that's more my own ignorance or the fact that I was reading a galley (e.g. "...and somehow Chika found the liver to ask her to lunch.", "I don't want her pim about this again", "Wow, I've really been an idiot. You've been here making a fool of me this whole time. I hail you!").

I feel like had the canvas been wider the contrast between the generations in terms of lifestyle choices and societal norms would have been more believable. Instead I felt that this story presented too much of a dramatic contrast between the two generations across only a handful of people.
On the one hand we had the patriarchal, traditional, religious and homophobic heteronormative generation and on the other we had a generation much more comfortable juggling gender and sexual orientation. I can't help thinking that a generation was skipped, but frankly I can't say I have any direct experience of the social context being narrated, so perhaps this is completely incorrect.

The theme of re-incarnation, or if you like the blurring of the line between life and death, is also timidly addressed but not enough to make much of it really. I would have found it interesting if the matter of the "half caste" experience had been developed more as it intrigued me, particularly within a context of which I am quite ignorant.

I hear that Emezi's Freshwater debut novel is a more distinctly original novel and reading The Death of Vivek Oji has not been such a negative experience for me to put me off reading Freshwater eventually.

Many thanks to Faber and Faber and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgaley, Faber and Faber Ltd, Faber & Faber and Akwaeke Emezi for free e-ARC of
The Death of Vivek Oji in return of my honest review.

What a story! What a way to tell it! Unbelievable. The story telling is amazing, the author's ability to create the atmosphere is breath-taking. I felt like a part of the story. I shed many tears along the way, had a few smiles, and will never forget it.

I love taking something from the story I read - and this one remind me that my children have their own lives and they should lead them the way they see fit. It might be wrong in my eyes, or I may not support their vision of themselves at first, however, I try to believe that I will be there for them no matter what life they coose for themselves. Thank you Akwaeke Emezi for this.

This book was shockingly good. Emezi has written a story that is not only about the shocking, senseless death of an individual, but they have pulled together secrets, issues of being 'other' in a society and culture that does not welcome it, and the life that has led to this point.

Vivek was born on the same day that his grandmother died. Vivel's body was found naked and abandoned on the doorstep of his parents house. This book tells the story of the pages inbetween - some are from Vivek's perspective, some that of his cousin, Osita, whilst others shift between other characters, including his mother and friends.

Vivek's death is set against a backdrop of unrest in Nigeria - "thieves" are lynched in the marketplace, some foreigners have status, whereas refugees do not. Some churches preach violence. But Vivek's own personal life is one of unrest - he experiences blackouts and disorientation, is slight and strange and, when he returns from university with long hair, and seems to be wasting away.

What is beautiful about this is novel is the how the younger generation begin to rally around him, providing support and a means of self-discovery. Particularly in a society and culture that is clearly less accepting.

The story is non-linear; there's a lot of jumping around between different characters and timeframes, however it is somehow not confusing for the reader, and Emezi slowly reveals each piece of information until the final, sad twist.

And this isn't going to be a happy story - we're talking about death and grief here, and people searching for meaning and understanding. But Emezi has such a beautiful way of writing about it that really makes an impact on the reader, without being high-handed in their approach.

The speech also contains snippets of Igbo and particular ways of speaking - these are scattered throughout the characters' words but aren't at all intrusive or hard to understand, they compliment the real-ness of the narrative, and your understanding of the characters. Likewise, parts of Nigerian culture, or class, or education filter through, particularly into this community of people with one Nigerian parent and one foreign parent who are part-way between cultures themselves. For example, how the social status (ie what kind of school they attend) or heritage of a child can determine when they cut their hair, or how their fathers might act towards their own wives, which are expressed so neutrally, but seem so appalling.

This the kind of read that was beautifully written, very powerful and should be shocking.

Already a fan of this author, I was in anticipation for this novel and it did not disappoint. It was beautiful, heartbreaking, and transformational. Highly recommend.

3.5★
“Vivek still fought a lot, just with other people now. He had a temper like gunpowder packed into a pipe, a coiled‑up strength that had developed with time, and because he was thin and quiet, no one expected the violence to explode out of his frame the way it did.”

This is the story of Vivek, told sometimes in the third person, sometimes by Osita, Vivek’s cousin, and occasionally in Vivek’s own words. The writing is in Emezi’s unique style – almost musical in places, but sharp and graphic in others, especially sex scenes.

The book opens by telling us about Vivek’s father, Chika, and his father’s mother, Ahunna, who stepped on a stick and injured her foot, leaving a starfish-shaped scar on the bottom.

Chika married an Indian girl, Kavita. Both are devoted to Ahunna. Years later, when Vivek was born, Chika saw the same scar pattern on his foot. There’s a touch of this magic throughout.

“On the day Vivek was born, Chika had held the baby in his arms and stared at that scar. He’d seen it before—Kavita always commented on its shape whenever she rubbed Ahunna’s feet. Kavita had been without a mother for so long, her love for Ahunna was tactile and rich with childlike affection, a hundred thousand touches. They would sit together, read together, walk in the farm together, and Ahunna would give thanks that she’d given birth to two sons and been gifted two daughters.”

Vivek and his cousin are close as children and play with the other kids in their town. As they hit their teens and puberty, things change, not only for the boys and girls, but also for their parents. There are several adult couples, some of whom are related, and some of whom are carrying on affairs.

Akwaeke Emezi's first book, Freshwater, explored a complex character made up of two characters. In this book, the author shows the young people moving fairly fluidly between their crushes and loves. I don’t think any of them self-identify as homo- or heterosexual. Rather they go where the love is or where the spirit moves them at the time.

The adults, on the other hand, come across as traditional, almost suburban, middle-aged parents, with the same strengths and weaknesses and worries as most other parents in the world. They don’t understand their kids.

The title tells us Vivek died, but we can only guess why or how as we move through the story. This is Nigeria, where there’s violence and internal strife, fires, riots. We know there’s a bad fire, because Osita tells us so. Every so often throughout the book, we hear about the fire.

There’s an odd point about halfway through when a character who appeared briefly in the first few pages, suddenly reappears in a chapter more or less of his own. I was so startled to see the name Ebenezer again, that I made use of the fact I was reading on a Kindle so I could do a quick search to find out who he was.

As it turned out, I didn’t really need to know. I felt his part of the story could have been told another way. I was having enough trouble keeping track of the many characters, young and old, and their various allegiances and secret affairs!

When Vivek dies, Kavita is beside herself, so much so, that she nearly goes mad. When some of his friends come to talk to her later to tell her about Vivek’s life with them when he wasn’t at home, she becomes extremely distressed. I’m sure I would feel the same way in the same circumstances. But I do know that parents don’t always know their children.

“‘I don’t know what you people did to him, but that was not my son! That was not my Vivek!’

Osita felt his chest hurt but he didn’t know what to say.
. . .
Olunne was staring at Kavita with pity. Her sister, however, was furious.

‘He didn’t belong to you,’ Somto growled, and they all looked at her, appalled. ‘You keep talking as if he belonged to you, just because you were his mother, but he didn’t. He didn’t belong to anybody but himself.’”

There’s a lesson in there for everyone, much as we don’t like to hear it. If they’re lucky, our children grow up to be who they are.

I thought Freshwater was amazing. This one didn’t hold my interest or attention. I would have liked fewer characters and their side stories and more focus on the main ones. It's only that I had a preview copy and that I'd admired the first book so much that I finished this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.

Really striking from the off, this book had me hooked and while not a light read, I couldn’t put it down.
This will be on my mind for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

Set in Nigeria, this story is both beautiful and breathtaking. The Desth of Vivek Oji is a story about secrets, coming of age and the power of friendship.

This story had me gripped from the start, with the characters coming to life with each new chapter.

3 + stars ⭐⭐⭐

Special thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was able to read this book thanks to Netgalley. This book was very beautifully written and I was extremely invested kn the characters and their stories. It is a book that will stay with you for a long time and you will find yourself thinking about long after you finish it. I will definitely look for more work from this author and will be recommending it to my family and friends as well. Thanks again to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is a short novel. Read it in one sitting. Heartbreaking and beautiful. I found the characters and the story engaging. The ending wasn't to my liking though but that's just me.

Heart wrenching. Tragic. Beautiful. Extraordinary prose. This book follows a family in a small town in Nigeria. Filled with cultural, family, religious, and identity crisis, the story grabs at the heartstrings and the soul. While tragedy abounds, it was still gripping and hard to put down. Highly recommend.
***Big thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

To call this 'Heartbreaking' will be an understatement. Relationships brought alive from the heart of Nigeria in a beautiful and nuanced way. In the acknowledgements I spotted Emezi mentioning Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, this work is definitely inspired from it. Atleast the writing style is, how she slowly unravels the story to the reader. And I loved the shifting point of views, giving a peek under everyone's head to see their mourning.

God, that ending.

4.5 stars.

Short, yet so consuming. The writing was beautiful & I could vividly picture every thing, every place, and every person, which I loved. But what a heartbreaking story... the ending tore me to pieces. I don’t want to say anymore because I don’t want to give anything away. But this is a gorgeous piece of literature - through & through.

Thank you to NetGalley & Faber and Faber for providing me with a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

A mother finds the dead body of her son on her doorstep. She tries to find answers but is thwarted by indifference, shame and guilt.

Vivek Oji is a boy out of time and place. As a young boy, he suffers fugues which he considers sweet relief from the harsh realities of Nigerian society.

The story focuses mainly on the perspectives of Kavita, his mother, and Osita, his cousin and best friend, as they struggle to reconcile themselves with their loss and look back on Vivek's troubled past.

Their patriarchal society is laced with prejudice and violence and Vivek's 'difference' is characterised as illness or the work of the devil. Vivek finds friends who will share and protect his secrets and allow him to become more like his true self.

A beautifully written and tragic and troubled story with lessons that extend far beyond Nigeria.

I had to process all of my thoughts and feelings after finishing this a couple of days ago because I was absolutely ✨wrecked✨ after reading this.

The book starts with the death of Vivek Oji - a nineteen/twenty year old in Nigeria and what follows is the story of Vivek’s life, working our way to the finale, the day of his death.

This is a story about identity, a mother’s grief, about friendship, and about love.

The writing is beautiful and immersive, and the story is absolutely heartbreaking.

I don’t usually cry at books or during movies, but this book made me cry.

This was also the best book of 2020, imho.

Ohh this book was truly devastating, heartbreaking and amazing and I wanted to read this one for a while
First, the book started with a tragic and mysterious death of Vivek Oji, however we are following the true retelling life of Vivek's life set on a background in Nigeria.
While the story depicts on his life, we are following his lifeline, friendships

In the second time, I couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened to Vivek. How had he have ended up like that. As the story progressed, the pieces fall in place and I finally knew the narrative which the book was setting up for.
What follows is his mother’s journey to discover why this happened to her son, and the realisation that she never really knew him at all. The story is mostly narrated by Vivek’s mother, Kavita, and his beloved cousin, Osita, who is struggling with his own identity and sexuality. However, there is a strong supporting cast of characters, many of them Vivek’s friends who are all coming of age and discovering their own identity and boundaries, as well as his intensely religious aunt Mary who judges Vivek’s behaviour whilst remaining completely unaware of her own son’s desires.

I feel that Emezi did a fantastic job with this story. Her writing style flowed, painting the story and I always felt like I was there, watching everything unfold. I never felt like her characters were unrealistic; they felt like people who I could bump into in the real world and she dealt with the varying subjects and differing perspectives so well.

This is a book I will definitely be reading again in future and would recommend anyone to pick up and read. I look forward to reading more from Emezi in the future and know that this book will leave a lasting impression on me.
Thank you #netgalley for a copy of this amazing copy in exchange of an honest review

I've heard nothing but praise for this book so went in with quite high expectations. Although I had conflicting opinions, the last 10% absolutely swayed this one for me.

We know from the cover that Vivek is dead. What we don't know is why or how he died. Switching perspectives and timelines, we hear from Vivek's parents, his cousin, his friends and Vivek himself. Through these snippets, we glimpse Vivek's childhood, his teen years, his physical transformation, his unexplainable blackouts that make people think he has the devil in him. We learn from those that love him what made Vivek special, how he risked everything to be himself. This book epitomises the power of love, acceptance, and identity in a country constrained by religious and cultural beliefs.

Firstly, the themes explored in this story are incredibly pertinent. I love books that celebrate identity, but this one had some many other complex layers, including cultural expectations that prevent people from being their true selves. The characters were diverse and well-developed, and we gained a strong insight into each one's thoughts, feelings, struggles, and secrets.

There were certain parts of the book that didn't appeal to me (mainly sexual/graphic content); I'm much more of a closed-door romance kind of person and I felt uncomfortable at times, but I think that was also intended to really emphasise the character's emotions and raw grief.

Like I said, the last 10% really won me over; the loose ends were tied up and everything came together, breaking my heart into a million pieces. I didn't realise how connected I was to the characters until I found out what really happened. I couldn't stop thinking about them, which is a sign of a brilliantly constructed novel with deep-meaning themes, authentic characters and heart-wrenching events.

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m still sitting with this book. I have a lot of feelings that I can’t quite put into words. I waited until our book club chat in the hopes that my thoughts would clarify but here I am, still sitting with them.

Akweake Emezi has written something special here. They’ve evoked feelings & themes of loss, love, identity & societal pressure into something that comes together to create an overarching sense of heartbreak. And my heart is truly broken for everyone who lost Vivek.

You’ve probably already read thousands of reviews for this book so instead, I’ll share the lessons this book taught our book club & some of my favourite lines from the book:

Lessons:
Life is fragile
Parental love can be complex; it is unconditional but can appear conditional. And it often only appears/becomes unconditional when it’s too late
Can grief be monopolised?
Pure love transcends the boundaries that society has created
Family does not always have to be created through blood

Favourites lines:
“Some people can't see softness without wanting to hurt it.”

“You keep talking as if he belonged to you, just because you were his mother, but he didn’t. He didn’t belong to anybody but himself.”

“If nobody sees you, are you still there?”

“When you’ve stood on ground & known your child’s bones are rotting beneath you, rage and ego fade like dust in a strong wind.”

Akweake Emezi was just dropping all the truth bombs with their beautiful, poignant prose. Although a short book, there’s so much depth & detail in it because of the succinctness of their writing. Who needs hundreds and hundreds of pages when you have eloquent writing like this?

4.5 stars rounded up.

I just finished this book and I'm not quite sure that I have the words to speak coherently about how utterly stunning and devastating it is. As an emotional reader, I was warned that this would definitely make me weepy, and yet, as I hit the 80% mark and had only felt mildly watery-eyed up until that point, I wasn't sure if it'd do it for me. And THEN those last parts hit me like a freight train going full-speed and I was left gasping for air as I finished the book in tears. It wasn't that I didn't see any of it coming but this emotionally charged story crescendoed so beautifully and painfully and... Y'know, I thought I was ready but I really wasn't!

This is my first book by Emezi but it most certainly won't be my last. Their writing is phenomenal. Absolutely stunning! I devoured the gorgeous prose so quickly that I had to tell myself to slow down because I wanted to savour it. Not only was the cultural setting beautifully wrought but the words were so full of all the emotions the characters experience that it's almost a tangible thing. My heart, it aches!

The story opens with Vivek's death and from there we explore the years leading up to that fateful day through the eyes of Vivek's family and friends. Each chapter is a different POV and it also alternates from first-person and third-person based on which POV we're reading. I wasn't sure if that style would get confusing but it actually really worked for me. It served to increase the intimacy of certain chapters while also providing a "wider-lens" to capture the socio-cultural setting and how all the characters are impacted by its constructs. I thought the representation of what it means to be LGBTQ+ in Nigeria was explored really well and with the emotionally charged writing, it was easy to empathise with the confusion and fear the characters felt. We also see how grief manifests for our characters and the rawness of Kavita's pain was almost suffocating in its power. Emezi does an incredible job in translating those emotions into simple yet powerful words. Honestly, there's so much to unpack in this story and no review of mine could ever do it justice! I just know that these characters and Vivek's story will stick with me for a long time to come.

While this was almost a 5-star for me, there were some minor things that I didn't really get. There were certain perspectives that I didn't see the point of. I mean, I understood that the author was showing a different side to the situation, but I don't know if it had the strong impact that maybe the author intended. I think it would've been more intimate and impactful if done through Osita or even Juju's POV. Another aspect that confused me was the illness that Vivek experienced in his childhood. Those incidents just kinda disappeared explanation and I still don't understand what or why it happened or what the author was trying to say with it, if anything.

Other than that, this was an incredible story about the complexities of love, sexual and gender identities, and coming to terms with yourself in a society that doesn't accept your existence. It's about loss, grief, fear and secrets. It's a stunning book that I would highly recommend, although I will say it might not be for everyone as it does involve taboo relationships (sexually explicit) that some readers might find disturbing. There are still months left to go in 2021, but so far, this is one of my favourite reads of the year!

What an absolutely stunning book. Akwaeke Emezi's prose is breathtaking and transformative, truly bringing you into the world and emotions of Vivek .

We begin in modern day Nigeria, where a mother opens her door and finds her son's dead body wrapped on colourful cloth. We then move into a masterfully crafted multi-perspective journey to the events leading up to this moment and Vivek's death.

This book is hard to define in the best way possible. It's a coming of age story about gender and sexual identity, romantic love, friendship, family and cultural constructs and expectations. It's about love in all forms and acceptance and will make your heart ache.

I will definitely be reading more of Emezi's work.

Thank you to Faber & Faber and Netgalley for the gifted e-copy.

"So: if nobody sees you, are you still there?"

Vivek Oji is dead. His lifeless naked body is found wrapped in beautiful bloodied fabrics, laying outside his parent's door. What has happened to this young man, their son? Is he everything that they believe him to be? We are presented Vivek's story superficially, almost as if only seeing him in a series of pictures placed haphazardly out of sequence in a photo album. We look at the pictures but don't know the whole story....left to try to decide "who was he?"

I tore through this story very quickly and am still not sure how I feel about it. At many points I felt voyeuristic, almost intruding in some intimate moments of his life, yet overall I felt like so much was withheld, and the reader was purposely left without details. Some of it was difficult to read. I understand Vivek's life was very troubled, but I too felt like his mother, maybe I didn't know him at all.

The writing was delicious, this author is a gifted storyteller. I often felt like I was in the room living these moments with these rich characters. I wanted to know them and be part of them. Be advised there is some borderline gratuitous sexual content peppered throughout, but overall very well done.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for extending the opportunity for me to read and give my unbiased review.