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Fresh starts were good; that separateness was where you could feel yourself, where you could learn who you were apart from everyone else.Highlighted by 964 Kindle readers- Alone is a feeling you can get used to, and it’s hard to believe in a better alternative.Highlighted by 622 Kindle readers
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Reviews with images
A Plot Twist!
I read this book in one day! Brilliant story line and I really enjoyed how Emezi introduce each character and their perspective throughout the story. It was raw and authentic! I felt like I was in the town in southeastern Nigeria watching everything unfold, page by page. Thank you for this heartfelt story!
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
A must read!!!!
Reviewed in Canada on February 11, 2021
Amazon Customer
Reviewed in Canada on February 11, 2021
I continued flipping through every page anyway, getting acquainted with the mystery that is the life of Vivek Oji and why Akwaeke starts off this book with a very simple yet gripping sentence “They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died” and ended with this paragraph that could have easily fallen out of a beautiful book of poem “Somewhere, you see, in the river of time, I am already alive”
I feel goosebumps take over my skin and making a home there. I want to open my window and scream to the whole world about this book till my lungs give out. I want to tell you all the ways it made me happy, sad, and then happy again. Akwaeke is a brilliant writer and this story is one that won’t be forgotten quickly. The Death of Vivek Oji has promised to live in our minds and at the tip of our tongue.
Aside from the brilliance that is Akwaeke’s writing which I will come back to later, this novel is a captivating body of work, a story that allows you to empathize even while dissecting unceremoniously dissecting into parts.
A story about grief, death, loss, reincarnation, acceptance, love, chosen family, and at its center identity, sexuality, how our society, beliefs, and environment shapes both how we see ourselves and how others see us.
If nobody sees you, are you still there?
One of the main characters Vivek posed this question in chapter four. A question that kept getting asked and answered through the point of view of 3 narrators who moves the story forward.
What does it mean to be seen? Who gets to be seen? Who do we want to us? How do we want to be seen? What gets in the way of being seen? What version of ourselves is visible, what isn’t and why?
The question of Visibility is a very familiar one. Every time we walk into a room, people are immediately drawn to us, making snap judgment about our appearance, dissecting us into simpler pieces as a way to categorize us into familiar schemas which affects how they relate to us, how we relate to them, how we move in the world and take up space.
Often, these snap judgments people make of us are very biased, untrue, deeply reliant on socialization, and can sometimes be harmful.
As Vivek narrates some part of his life, we see how his appearance changes, how this change becomes a source of worry to those around him particularly his parents so much so that he is pathologized by them.
We see the consequences of this pathology; the incessant need to fix him taking a toll on his body causing him to become unhappy, barely eating, physically uncomfortable, mentally going in and out of consciousness.
However, while Vivek is around his friends who don’t try to fix him, a much happier Vivek who is boisterous and full of life emerges.
Emezi makes a point here on visibility, the importance of having people who see you exactly as you are, people who make room for you in their life even when they do not understand, people who welcome you and hold space for you.
There is also a point here worth emphazing, about going where you are seen and affirmed “choosing people who choose you”.
This was the most important lesson I learned in this book. Forgoing the need to bend me in order to become a version of me that is acceptable. Instead, I will go where I am seen just as I am. At the end of the day, just like Vivek, we will all die, and what would’ve been the point of living a life that was never ours?
Now let me return to Akwaeke’s prose and language use because really that is what makes this Novel shine. Emezi‘s writing in this novel is authentically Nigerian, they infuse both Igbo and everyday “Nigerian English” making this novel colorful and sparkly. Akwaeke doesn’t try to impress you with big words that can sometimes become laborious causing you to lose interest or making the characters lose their originality. Instead, they dazzle your tongue with the richness that is Igbo and Nigerian English, transporting you to the Eastern part of Nigeria where these characters live, breathing life into them.
Emezi’s writing is simple, straightforward, evocative, and tender. There are many chapters in this book that belong to a separate collection of poems that I have dreamt up for Emezi.
Have you ever had food so good it lingers on your tongue for days? You find yourself daydreaming about its smell, its texture, its taste, the dance it does on your tongue that causes your whole mouth to move. This is exactly what Emezi’s writing did to me in this novel.
Even in the process of writing this review, I have been sucked into this book several times by the sweetness in Emezi’s prose. It’s visceral, it’s vivid, it is a stimulating experience that leaves you bowing at Emezi’s feet begging for more.
A must-read!
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Lisa Z.
This is the best book I have ever read.
Reviewed in the Netherlands on May 14, 2022
HLeuschel
A stunning read about identity, belonging and grief
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2021
Anushka
Mesmerising and beutiful book. Everyone needs to pick this up.
Reviewed in India on August 14, 2021
Anushka
Reviewed in India on August 14, 2021
🏵️
Sometimes you pick a book, read the first chapter or a paragraph or a line and realise every cell in your body coming alive.You know the book is going to wreck you, but at the same time it gives you some solace and you go back to it again and again. It holds in it a part of you.
'The Death of Vivek Oji' by Akwaeke Emezi was that book for me. The first chapter with mere 11 words had a grip on me–'They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died.' I was taken aback by how these few words could tie me down in a spot and make me flip through the pages without a break and set on an emotional ride.
Set in Nigeria, it tells the story of Vivek Oji and their loved ones. Vivek's death hits hard to everyone close to them; the Mother Kavita whose doorsteps welcomes the body of the son she knew naked and wrapped in a beautiful cloth, the shattered Father Chika, the cousin Osita who knew the true self of Vivek and Vivek's friends.
After the untimely death, we travel back in time to get to know Vivek and their journey to self discovery, exploring one's sexual and gender identity, accepting your true self and sharing yourself with the people who love you for you but still hiding from some, because your true self defies theirs and society's set standards.
A mother laden with grief searching for the answers and trying to understand the child she never knew is emotional and heart warming.
The writing is seamless and lyrical, and it subtly questions the inherent homophobia and transphobia. The transition between different POVs and timelines is easy to follow and we get Vivek's POV from the other side too which tugs at the heartstrings and I was left tear stricken by the end.
This is a book to be savoured and I loved learning about the Igbo culture and the Nigerwives commumity.
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