This was a solid read, but I just did not love it. It’s beautifully written and very descriptive so the author is obviously very talented. I did not fall in love with the story, so it’s 3/5 ⭐️ for this one.

TL; DR: go and read it now!

The death of Vivek Oji starts with one of those sentences that grabs you and keeps you reading: "They burned down the market on the day that Vivek Oji died."

From there, the book is a story of belonging, identity and grief in Nigeria. Vivek's life is told from the perspective of his family and friends, the daughters from the Nigerwives: foreign wives of Nigerian men. We barely hear Vivek's voice, which for many other readers seems to be offputting. I actually enjoyed it, as this form gives us the opportunity to hear directly from the others about how their relationship with Vivek affected them, both during his life and after his death.

The other sticky point seems to be the length of the book. I didn't feel it was too short, but I was drawn to it from the beginning, unlike other reviews I've seen. I enjoyed learning and seeing the society and culture from the beginning.

The writing is beautiful and captivating. I read the book in one sitting, and I will definitely go and check Akwaeke Emezi's other book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the ARC.

The Death of Vivek Oji is so beautifully written that I found myself captivated by it. It reads like a mystery in many ways because we don’t learn the truth about what happened to Vivek until the end and if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself desperately trying to figure it out.

Although it’s stunning in style and content and I loved the overarching themes of identity and community, this isn’t going to be a book for everyone. That’s not to say that it’s not an important read because it absolutely is and I think that the way it challenges societal norms regarding gender and sexuality is wonderful. I love that it encourages us to be more accepting of others. However, it is quite a sexually charged book and the relationship between cousins Vivek and Osita does venture into incest.

While a beautifully written book, reading The Death of Vivek Ojo wasn’t a pleasant experience. Nor was it meant to be. This story is one of the dangers of boxing someone in with your expectations, and how violently those expectations can be railed against. Even if the person you’ve boxed in is someone you love desperately, and the person rebelling loves you just as much. It’s a tale of cultural norms not evolving with the times, and how harmful and heavy this can weigh on the younger generations of a society. It’s a story of family secrets, of misunderstood and hidden gender identities and sexualities and how keeping such secrets can fester within a soul. I was very uncomfortable with the levels of open-door, descriptive sexual content, but it was unequivocally central to the plot. A powerful book that I’m glad to have read, but will never be reading again.

Wow I did not know what to expect going into this, but this story was incredible. This was such a powerful story about gender identity, family, and relationships. Vivek struggles to understand himself and his place in his family and the world. The story alternates narrators and timeline, helping piece together Vivek's relationships and what happened to him, revealing the loneliness he suffered and his ultimate goal to live the life he wanted. At the beginning the characters were difficult to keep straight, but quickly were identifiable and helped tell the story. This was a beautifully written and powerful story and I highly recommend checking it out.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

WOW. I was not expecting this after reading the blurb... This book was sensational. I very rarely cry when reading but the ending of this book left me in tears. I've never felt so attached to the characters in a book like I did with this one.

After the first few chapters, I almost decided to dnf the book as I found the number of characters difficult to follow but I'm so glad I didn't. The storyline picked up very quickly and was definitely full of heart-wrenching twists and turns. Vivek and Osita's character developments were excellent and the use of Nigerian Pidgin vernacular made it captivating and so rewarding. A must read!

I received a reviewer copy of The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi from the publisher from Faber & Faber from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Conversion Therapy. Transphobia and homophobia.

What It’s About: This book follows the life of Vivek Oji and those who loved him. The book starts with Vivek's death and it switches between a before and after timeline.

What I Loved: I honestly loved everything. This book is short but it is so powerful. Emezi weaves a beautiful story, where every detail was carefully chosen. The writing was so perfect and it was a delight to read for that reason but also this story holds you captive. You want to know Vivek and what is going on the whole book. This book studies identity: sexual identity, gender identity, identity as a parent, etc. It is a study of grief. You will be transported and feel like you want to hold and protect Vivek.

What I didn’t like so much: Really can't think of anything, this novel was well paced and compelling.

Who Should Read It: People who love literary fiction. People who love stories that transport them to new places and explore different cultures. People who love to read books about complex characters. People who don't mind a book that will make them cry.

General Summary: A story of a life and identity.

The hype for The Death of Vivek Oji is well deserved. The title alone tells the reader that Vivek is dead, but there is a layer of mystery about the details that slowly dissolves as the plot moves forward. It was a slow buildup that turns into a heart-wrenching story by the last third of the book. Vivek’s death catalyzes the plot, but the story as a whole gracefully explores themes of identity, sexuality, grief, friendship, and family.

The writing is beautiful. It bounces across perspectives through many side characters. I craved more from Vivek’s perspective, but the use of other characters’ perspectives effectively showed how every person knows different version of Vivek and uniquely mourns him.

The whole story tugs at heartstrings and the ending is unforgettable. I am certainly inspired to read more by Akwaeke Emezi.

The Death of Vivek Oji tells the story of those touched by Vivek in his life and death. For how intense and heavy this book and its content are it was one that I didn't want to stop reading. This book is incredible. I need to pick of the rest of Emezi's work.

The Death of Vivek Oji starts as the title suggests with the death of Vivek Oji. It then goes back and we see glimpses of Vivek's life and how his death impacts those who loved him.

This is not a long book but I felt completely captivated by its beautiful writing. This is the second book I have read by Akwaeke Emezi and I want to read everything they ever write now.

Published at the end of the summer, this is the latest work from The Women’s Prize-longlisted writer Akawaeke Emezi, whose debut ‘Freshwater’ was universally lauded: like her previous novel, this new book deals with characters who seem to slip between worlds. As the title plainly states, Vivek Oji is dead, yet also seemingly not: the book slowly pieces together his life and the fallout from his death from the perspective of those closest to him, but Vivek also returns himself to add colour and life to these anecdotes, to rewrite the story from a different point of view.

Born on the day of his grandmother’s death and bearing an identical birthmark to the family’s matriarch, Vivek is continually between states, raising questions of selfhood and identity from the very first moments we meet the eponymous character. His absent father Chika and besotted-to-the-point-of-obsessed mother Kavita are the touchpoints who first identify the character’s otherness: “He should have known, Chika told himself as Kavita screamed in grief, Vivek clutched to her chest. He did know. How else could that scar have entered the world on flesh if it had not left in the first place? A thing cannot be in two places at once… this is how Vivek was born, after death and into grief.”

This is a book about how something – someone – can be in two places, two states at once: in just a few sentences the narrative can take us from soft, maternal delight at the young Vivek’s warm skin to brutal, bloodied grief at the wrapped corpse left on the family’s veranda.

Some changes cannot be avoided: death is a part of life, and present throughout, but what happens to our true selves when we are forced to adjust, to alter our nature to make those around us more comfortable? Do we end up, like Vivek, feeling heavy our entire lives – “ like being dragged through concrete in circles, wet and setting concrete that dried with each rotation of my unwilling body. As a child, I was light… I slid through it and maybe it felt like a game, like I was just playing in mud… but then I got bigger and it started drying on me and eventually I turned into an uneven block, chipping and sparking on the hard ground, tearing off into painful chunks.”

There is no escaping Vivek’s fate, but as with his grandmother’s passing, birth often follows on from death – if in an unexpected fashion. Tender and painfully raw in places, The Death Of Vivek Oji is a book that will stay with you long after the sad conclusion that all of a sudden has been hiding in plain sight throughout.

Cambridge Edition Book Club 'Autumn Reads' October 2020 (link to follow)

A stunning novel and the first book I've read by Emezi but definitely won't be my last! The title of the book, The Death of Vivek Oji, tells you quite clearly that this will involve the death of Vivek Oji but it was actually the story of his life as a young man in Nigeria. I went into this not knowing anything and I think that's the best way to approach it. There were reveal moments when I gasped in surprise. It's a story about identity, secrets, family and love. I felt connected with the community of Vivek's family and through multiple perspectives, we are able to find out more details regarding Vivek's death. It has breathtaking prose and Emezi weaves a compelling and important message through the life and death of Vivek Oji.

Thank you Netgalley & Faber and Faber Ltd for a free ARC for review.
Thank you to Libro.fm & and Penguin Random House Audio for a free ALC for review.

Have you ever wanted to crawl into the pages of a book so badly to wrap a character in a big reassuring hug?
This book is stunning, haunting, beautifully written. Each chapter is an emotional unraveling as we move forward and back in time to the cause of Vivek Oji’s death. Emotional and immediately gripping Emezi is so concise with their words not wasting one sentence on redundancy. I deeply understood each character after just a few passages, hanging on every word as significant. Akwaeke Emezi draws the reader into the story with a force of immediacy and pace of a suspenseful thriller.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗽: Akwaeke Emezi peels back layer after layer about Vivek without assigning labels and I encourage you to do the same. Suspend your judgement and lead with an open mind. Most of what we know about Vivek is through the experience and eyes of other characters but early on in this book, we read a powerful reflection of his experience “And every day it was difficult, walking around and knowing that people saw me one way, knowing that they were wrong, so completely wrong, that the real me was invisible to them. It didn’t exist to them. So: If nobody sees you, are you still there?”

A must-read and new personal favorite.

A beautiful, moving read. This book is about family, friendship, sexuality, identity, and how not accepting others as they are can have monumental consequences. The message is a powerful one that I anticipate will be widely read in book clubs and includes in school libraries. The novel is a short read, but is beautifully written making you connect and understand each of the characters. A bittersweet novel that you'll hang onto long after finishing.

In the last few months, I've tried hard to bring about much needed diversity in my reading, primarily in the context of the authors I was reading and the worlds that they represent. The Death of Vivek Oji certainly fits the diversity box as far as my reading is concerned, and I am so much the richer for it.

It is a moving tale of family acceptance even under the weight of heavy grief, a story of complicated friendships, and a sharp look at the intolerances that seem to pervade our culture, no matter which part of the world we live in.

It's one of the best books I've read this year - the characters are richly painted, the plot is fantastic even if heartbreaking, and it packs a tender punch on the whole.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

#TheDeathofVivekOji #NetGalley

3.5 rounded up
Vivek Oji’s body was placed in front of the door and was discovered by his mother. Shocked and shaken, she was determined to find out the cause of his death. A novel set in the rural towns of Nigeria, this novel is about finding yourself and staying true to yourself, while navigating the world around you. It explored themes of love, sexuality and gender identity, family and acceptance. One would also learn about polygamy in Nigeria, the tension between the North and South which caused riots and how the society viewed a person like Vivek as mentally disturbed or possessed by an evil spirit.

I thought this was well-written, but I had my expectations set really high, especially after reading the glowing reviews. I was hoping for more in-depth characters, especially Vivek. He seemed like an interesting character but all we got from him were snippets of his thoughts, while his story was told by his friends and family. Also, the plot felt dragged out quite a bit that I skimmed some pages. It'd have helped if Vivek was given the chance to tell his part of the story.

I did however enjoy his friendship with the girls he met in Nigerwives and his relationship with Osita. It was tender, beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time, to see what they had to do to protect Vivek from the people who were supposed to love him as he was.

Generally an okay read; one that I didn’t regret reading.

ARC provided by Faber and Faber Ltd via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warnings: death, incest, queerphobia, adultery, violence.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi is a book that from the first sentence grips your heart hard and keeps on tightening its hold on you until the very end.

The novel revolved around gender, family and love in such a way that even if the leading feelings exuded are sadness and sorrow, the writing makes it so you are almost “happy” to welcome them and let tears well in your eyes.

I really enjoyed reading The Death of Vivek Oji and I am very interested in the author’s other works, Freshwater and Pet.

A beautiful book! Inside and out! Captivating right from the start! I listened to the audiobook (thanks to @librofm for the copy) and I followed along with the text (thanks to @netgalley and @riverheadbooks for the copy). There were some parts that were difficult to read, but that is the point of the story. It's so heartbreaking that there is intolerance of homosexuality in society. This story will stick with me for awhile.

Wow...this book absolutely broke my heart. It's an extremely emotional, incredibly well-written book, about a young boy (Vivek) who identifies as a different gender. Vivek keeps it fairly well hidden from their family and most who knew them, however, they share their true self with a few select friends. 

When Vivek's mother opens the door to discover her son's body, wrapped in the colorful fabric of a woman's dress, she begins to uncover the secret of who her son really was. This is a story of family acceptance amidst deep grief, complicated friendships, and learning to honor thy true self, no matter the consequence. I definitely recommend this beautiful, yet heartbreaking story. The audiobook narration is performed with such emotion, it adds greatly to the already moving story. I can't wait to read more by this author.

Amazing and sensitive deep dive into stunningly personal issues. Absolutely unforgettable characters that force you to deeply think and feel. I was mesmerized by the book and it was a quick read for me. Very grateful for the advanced copy. This was a Book of the Month option and I know for a fact I will be picking it up to have a physical copy as well.