Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian author perhaps best known for their 2020 novel, The Death of Vivek Oji. You made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty is being advertised as Emezi's romance debut, which I think might be a marketing misnomer. While the initial premise of the book fits within the traditional confines of the romance genre - Feyi is re-entering the dating scene 5 years after the tragic loss of her young husband - what follows deviates from a standard plot structure seen in most romance novels. After meeting Nasir at a bar, he connects Feyi with a prominent art curator and invites her to come back with him to his family home in the Caribbean to participate in one of the curator's shows. Upon arriving, Feyi discovers that Nasir's father is a Michelin star-rated celebrity chef with an opulent home and magnetic personality. Whatever spark Feyi was lacking with Nasir is present in full force with the father, Alim. The two bond over their previous traumas while falling in love, which inevitably creates conflict. While the book may have gone on for a bit too long and included some convenient resolutions, Emezi is no doubt a talented writer who has crafted a book that certainly deviates from any traditional romance plot structure.

There is one thing nobody can say and that's that Emezi can't tell a story. Because Emezi is emerging as one of the best storytellers of our time.

This has a trope that I am passionately against yet I couldn't put it down because they just have power with their words and can weave stories unlike anyone else.

Emezi takes on situations that society says is wrong and shows you exactly why society should mind their own business.

My absolute favorite part is that there was a conversation between the man and the woman about going to therapy that was natural and healthy.

And this book has some steam! A lot of the time y'all are lying about books being steamy but this one was good.

This is a second chance romance and it is beautiful in all it's flawed ways because we humans are flawed. And sometimes when we find love it doesn't look like what the world says it should.

After a heartbreaking tragedy that has consumed Feyi with guilt, our female lead is determined to get her life back, well at least what’s left of it.

When I first started reading this novel, I was taken aback at how beautifully written it is. The author describes the characters and scenes so vividly, but also in a way that isn’t overwhelming and too detailed. It was an emotional love story that explored healing, bravery, and possibility.

I think I enjoyed the first half of this book a lot more than the second half. I found it became repetitive near the end and I became less engaged. I also felt like there was a lot of romanticizing going on of things that shouldn’t be romanticized.

This book is the story of how messy life really is and how do you let go of the past to live in the future. The writing caught me a bit off guard at first but as I kept reading, I understood why it was written the way it was. There are so many dark and moody happenings as well as romance and tawdry scenes.

I enjoyed the book and then there are parts of me that didn’t. I have a mixed bag of emotions and feelings about this story. I believe it was worth the read but if you’re looking for a fast and easy read, this won’t be the book for you.

Thank you to #netgalley and #atriabooks for allowing me to read the eARC of this book. All opinions expressed above are my own.

This book is a messy, emotional masterpiece. The author’s writing is absolutely lyrical, and gets at the heart of grief, loss, and healing in a raw and vulnerable way that I’ve never encountered before. The setting of this book was lovely, the romance was beautiful, and the main character was one worth cheering for. I absolutely adored this book.

This book definitely ended up being a mixed bag for me--my overarching opinion after finishing this book is that I would rather read a book about the MCs best friend, and I'm really hoping the author would write it someday.

I think this books strongest asset are the individual quotes: this book has so many lovely quotes that I was itching to highlight and tab, but couldn't fully appreciate due to the audiobook nature of my listening. The book isn't purple with prose, but does have many stunning quotes sprinkled throughout which was great.

However, i did have some issues with the way the characters of the story are written. Firstly, we have Jonah, who is the deceased husband of the main character. A large part of this book is the MC as well as the love interest wading through their respective traumas of losing their spouses, however I don't believe either of the spouses were well fleshed out as characters, which was a disservice to their journeys of navigating said traumas. I think had we learned more about Jonah's character specifically through Fayi's eyes, her trauma would feel more raw and vulnerable; the way the book portrays him as a rather surface level angel makes this trauma feel a bit plastic wrapped.

I also wished for more development into Fayi and the love interest, as I feel that for how long of a book this is we didn't really learn much about their personalities outside of each other. This is a common issue that I run into with a lot of romance novels, and it never fails to make the romance less compelling. The romance is so steamy and has so many wonderful quotes that could certainly be taken out of context and printed on wall decorations and the like because they describe love so well, but their actual relationship didn't feel so deep, charismatic and connective.

Still, I really enjoyed the writing style of this story, and was absolutely living for the messiness and chaos of the romance. My jaw dropped so many times with the various twists and turns and climaxes the novel took me through, and I would say the story was definitely entertaining; I just wished for a deeper dive into the characters personalities given how much space the length of the book gave to do it.

A gorgeously written contemporary romance with depth, drama, and tons of complications. The prose is beautiful and intense--I love paragraphs of description and analysis, but someone who prefers a faster pace might not agree. This is darker and moodier than most romances, which makes it an automatic crossover for litfic readers.

From the first time I heard the title, I was captivated. This book opened my mind to a rich story with rich characters. I grasped for ways to define it, to put what I had read into words and explain it to others. But, it’s hard to communicate something that resists definition.

This book defies “conventional” ideas of love, both romantic and platonic. It shows you that there is no perfect model, or right or wrong way to feel. It communicates that our choices are unapologetically ours to make.

This book is messy, complex, and beautiful. Feyi’s struggle through grief and loss is deeply felt by the reader (or at least *this* reader). It emphasizes that grief is not just one thing and can exist beside so many other emotions.

This book reminds us to be grateful for the feeling of being alive. It’s also SO FUN to read. I was literally shocked at some parts (you’ll just have to read it for yourself), stunned by this book’s boldness, but in the best way. The descriptions of setting and food and art are so vibrant, I loved every part of it!

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi is a refreshing take on a love story. This book takes on grief and love in a way that felt so human and authentic.

Feyi Adekola lost her husband 5 years ago in an accident that haunts her to this day. We see Feyi start dipping her toe into the waters of dating and…..hooking up…..as she starts to feel her way through this next chapter of her life. She meets a great guy who is willing to take things slow while also helping her make some of her dreams come true as an artist. He whisks her away to a tropical island where she enjoys Michelin star level meals from the home of a celebrity chef. The only issue is that someone who is completely off limits catches her eye. How will Feyi wrestle with her head and her heart, and will she be able to let go of her grief and her past in the process?

I loved this book and these characters - the story is unique and deep. I would highly recommend taking the time with Feyi and her cast of characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is out now!

Thank you to Atria Books for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first Akwaeke Emezi novel - though I have read parts of some of their other books and heard lots of great thing about the others, this was the first of their books that really called me to read it. And I am so glad I did! This is also the first book I've finished of what I like to call the "messy Black girl" contemporary genre, which I am so glad exists. This book has some tropes that I would normally stay away from in my reads, and that just testifies to me how much this book struck me. My highlighter did not get a rest while I read. This novel is beautifully written, and heartwarmingly filled with Black and Brown characters reveling in their cultures, their languages, and most importantly their connections to one another. You would not know this is this author's first romance - every line is deeply romantic and visual in a way that will stay with me long after finishing this book. Even though this book gets messy (very messy), everyone engages with life in a very mature and full way - every problem is waded through at the appropriate pace. I felt everything the main character felt - I understood why she made each choice that she made, and understanding a character is a far more powerful feeling to give a reader than agreeing with their choices. I more than wanted her to win, I wanted her to have what she wanted. This book came at a great time in my life where I am trying to teach myself what it means to be human. Not in an supernatural sense (for lack of a better word) - but in a way that engages morality in a more literal and everyday way. What does it mean to want something? What does it mean to be wrong sometimes? Does being wrong make you a bad person? Do wants deserve honoring? This book engages/reacts to reality in an intoxicating way, and allows the fullness of grief, joy, confusion, guilt, creativity and dread to meet the reader where they are. My only critique of this book is that I feel the main character's best friend suffers the same fate as a lot of romance main character's best friends - where every single conversation is about the main character and their problems other than feeling like a real conversation between friends. This was especially sad to me because this was a novel full of deliciously fleshed out characters, and Joy seemed so interesting and complex, but we only got to hear from her when she was advising our main character. There was some conversation about her love life, but it was repetitive and surface level. This is attributed partially to Joy's dislike at talking about her emotions, but I still would have liked to believe in their deep friendship a little more. Either way this book was an enjoyable read with a surprising amount of spice <3, and I feel I am better off as a person and a reader for having experienced it.

This book was amazing to say the least, I loved following along on Feyi's journey back to love and how she pulled herself and rebuilt herself from a tragedy that no one should endure.

This was my first Akwaeke Emezi but I cannot wait to read more of their novels :D

I was so intimidated by this book because for some reason I had this idea in my head that Emezi's writing would be too smart or too lyrical or too literary for me. So I waited until the audiobook released and on the one hand, a brilliant choice because Bahni Turpin is fantastic. And on the other hand, I loved the writing in this book so much, I'm mad I didn't take the opportunity to read it with my eyeballs so I could highlight the many lines that hit me right in the feels. This feeling is actually quite rare, but I just have a feeling I'll be acquiring a physical copy of You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty sooner than later so that I can annotate it to my heart's content. But let me try and actually articulate why I really loved this book.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty took the real messy parts of life and just... laid it all out there. Feyi is a widow (car accident) and she's sort of, finally, taking steps to return to the land of living, and part of that means dating. So this book opens with her having an Encounter with a man that is quite steamy. But Feyi, while proud of herself for taking this step, is not anywhere close to ready to actually let someone in all the way. The only person Feyi is really comfortable being utterly vulnerable with is her best friend, Joy. (I love Joy. Please tell me she's going to have her own book. I am BEGGING.)

Feyi is an artist, also, and she gets the opportunity to do something very cool on an unspecified island (Trinidad & Tobago are referenced a lot, so I think this island is definitely in the Caribbean, but I am pretty sure it's unnamed). Everything about her art and the way that it is described, and especially the parts later in the book that I obviously don't want to spoil tackles grief in such a fascinating and really compelling way. I think we see those stages of grief so often and while we may know that grief is a cycle and all that, there was just something refreshing about the way Emezi just embraces the part of grief that is sheer fury.

This book does end with a happy for now and I know Emezi has made it clear in their press that they intended this book to be a romance, and while I respect that, I also know I benefited so much from Leigh's review, which emphasized that this book doesn't really have a central love story. But if you love messy characters and also characters that feel like real people and you also need the assurance of mess with an HEA guarantee, this book is a good choice.

This was.... INCREDIBLE. The writing was absolutely phenomenal, and I felt so connected to the characters immediately. The perfect spicy summer read, highly highly recommend!!!!

I love mess! I'd read a few of Akwaeke's prior books, but wasn't sure how their gorgeous writing style would present in the romance genre. However, I love romance (and them!) so I went in with enthusiasm. The love story is good, but the heart of the novel is in Feyi's grief, how she's moving through it and how important her friendships are. This is where Emezi's voice really shines, in the intricacies of emotion and intimacy. Also, I liked that Feyi was messy and played with fire. Being impulsive, trying new things, putting yourself out of your comfort zone - those can all lead to growth and a better understanding of yourself, which I think was what Feyi needed. I'd love to see them write this genre again, maybe with Joy as the lead!

I finished this in one day (it’s been a while since I finished a book in a day). I’ve been recommending this to everyone who asks me for a spicy summer beach read… the opening chapter is giving Brooklyn summer.

Set in a Caribbean summer work-ish vacay, this proper romance, Black romance, two lovers meet and a proper anticipatory slow burn occurs as they carefully peel the layers of their similar scars. Emezi, being the world builder they are, gives us glass house insight into levels of intimacy that it takes to heal from personal and societal stones thrown when expectations and trauma collide.

Now, this is a grown folks story with a grown folks plot for grown folks who have lived grown lives. The characters at the onset or end of their Saturn return are questioning their experiences and their beliefs as they enter the next stage of their lives. In the end, they are all aware of their worth and right to their desires.

I rarely pick up a romance book, but I'll pick up literally anything Akwaeke Emezi writes. Their writing is very clear and accessible here, and they accomplished a small miracle, making me care about a couple's love story.

Happy pub day to this beautiful book! Akwaeke Emezi has never let me down, and I don't think they ever will. This book was everything I was hoping it would be - beautiful, emotional, and absolutely un-put-down-able. Will be recommending from the rooftops.

What is there left to say when it comes to the incredible, raw talent of Akwaeke Emezi?

Feyi Adekola’s story is one of a full scale selfish re-awakening; a sensual, romantic, and extremely messy story from beginning to end. But a beautiful one, at that.

This is a story about grief - an all consuming feeling that leaves people lost, with nowhere to turn. This is a story about living your life, even when you're swimming in a sea of guilt that seems to pull you away from shore.

Emezi’s writing is just superb, leaving your heart aching, and your face tear-stained. They have crafted a gorgeously messy story with complicated, flawed characters that will have you doing a double take. This story has truly shaken me to my core, and I know Feyi will stick with me long after today.

After I read The Death of Vivek Oji, I really didn’t know how to feel. The story made me completely uncomfortable because I still struggle with exactly why a plot line with incest was necessary.
Even though there’s nothing in this novel as heavy as incest, it’s still a plot that pushes boundaries. I think that’s just part of Emezi’s writing- to tell stories about people or situations that we don’t usually (admittedly) look for in a novel. She gives voices to characters that we probably wouldn’t like or take issues with in real life, because people like these characters DO EXIST.
Though once again, the edginess and “messiness” is not something I’m generally a fan of, I absolutely love how she writes her stories. I will probably never read this again, but I can see this being a great choice for discussions at book clubs.

2.5 Stars

I should have hesitated requesting an ARC of a romance, but I didn’t because of the author whose name often appears on awards lists. I wish I had hesitated because this book didn’t change my opinion of the genre.

Feyi Adekola is a young widow; her husband Jonah was killed in an accident five years earlier. She lives with her best friend Joy who convinces Feyi to begin dating again. An encounter with one man leads to another with Nasir who takes her on a luxury trip to a tropical island where his father Alim, a celebrity chef, has arranged for Feyi to be one of the artists in an exhibit. As soon as Feyi meets Alim, she is attracted to him and quickly becomes obsessed with him.

Feyi is not a likeable character. Having grieved for five years, she wants to be alive again. (It’s impossible to not know this desire because the word alive appears 35 times in the text!) But she makes such stupid and dangerous choices. Who has sex with a stranger in a bathroom and insists he not wear a condom? She comes across as so selfish: she transforms from a grieving widow to choosing to do whatever makes her feel alive. Her attitude seems to be to do what makes her happy and the heck with everyone else?! After an argument, she is focused on her material possessions: “’He threw out all my stuff.”

The relationship between Feyi and Alim has so many issues. First of all, there’s the love at first sight trope. As soon as she sees Alim, Feyi is dazzled by his handsomeness. This is supposed to be the foundation of a relationship that is “deep enough to uproot lives”? Feyi worries about how Jonah would react to her having a meaningful relationship with someone, but she doesn’t worry about what he would think of her having casual, unprotected sex with a stranger? Finally, connecting with someone who has experienced a loss/trauma similar to yours is known as trauma bonding; however, confusing shared trauma for compatibility is one of the most toxic relationship patterns you can follow.

Repetition is a major problem. Conversations between Feyi and Alim are long-winded and repetitive. They keep having a “should we/shouldn’t we” discussion. The same problem occurs in conversations between Feyi and Joy. They are supposed to be best friends, but they never talk about anything other than sex and their sexual partners. Amidst those conversations, don’t look for plot: the summary at the beginning is the entire plot. And on the topic of needless repetition . . . how often does the reader need to be told how beautiful Feyi is and how handsome Alim is?! Even the writing style is repetitive: “Feyi cut her a look” and “Joy cut her a look” and “Feyi cut her eyes at him” and “She cut her eyes at him” and “Nasir cut his eyes at her” and “Feyi cut her eyes at her best friend” and “Alim cut his eyes at his son” and “Lorraine cut her eyes at him” and “Alim cut his eyes at her” and “Feyi cut her eyes at her best friend” and “He cut his eyes at her” and “Joy cut her eyes at Feyi” and “Feyi cut her eyes at him” and “Alim cut his eyes at her” and “Feyi cut her eyes at him”?!!

There are other cringe-worthy expressions: “There were so many lessons she’d love to learn from his hands” and “there was no way she could say no” and “’Why did you have to kiss me?’” Some scenes are cringe-worthy: for instance, the two kitchen scenes (when Feyi licks mango foam off Alim’s finger and when Alim “stepped behind her and brought his arms around, lightly placing his hands over hers”) are so overdone!

Fey is supposedly an artist, one good enough to have been in exhibits. Why, then, does she devote almost no time to her art? Getting ready for her trip to the tropical island where she will have a piece of art in an exhibit, not once does she worry about her art; instead, “She’d spent four days packing, trying on every single outfit under Joy’s critical eye, picking out jewelry and sandals and sundresses, makeup and a bottled array of oils, from coconut to coffee to jojoba laced with tea tree for her scalp.” Art is not central to her life because she “stepped into her artist persona” only when necessary and worries more that her braids in an updo “was totally the wrong look for this outfit”?! Art certainly doesn’t seem to be a passion.

I could applaud the inclusion of bisexual characters who are not often included in mainstream fiction, but merely mentioning that Feyi and Alim have had same-sex relationships in the past hardly qualifies as an exploration of bisexuality.

The book is about taking a second chance at love, but I wish I hadn’t taken a chance on this romance.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.