While I really enjoyed this one, I felt the way the multiple time lines confused the story. Since the story jumped back and forth with very little warning, I had trouble figuring out where what I was reading fit into the story. I also felt the inclusion of so many secondary characters that were introduced and then never talked about further kept me from loving the book.

However, this is such a powerful story of loss and love that I did enjoy the book a lot.

Wow. I have never read anything like The Death of Vivek Oji. I began this book based off of glowing recommendations- but knew next to nothing about it. This book surprised me at every turn.

My heart goes out to everyone who ever has to struggle with their true identity & acceptance. This book exposed the lives of LGBQT teens in Nigeria. The Nigerian culture was something I enjoyed learning about through this book. It was done so well- I didn’t feel like I was reading facts. It was interwoven so the reader just figured out this is how things were. Vivek was a magical character.

The only thing I struggled with was the heaviness of this book. It was so well written- but the story was painful at times. And rightfully so. Each time I picked it up I wanted to know more while simultaneously wanting to turn a blind eye. It’s so very sad the reality that faces those who don’t follow the stereotypical life path. This book did a beautiful job exposing lesbian/bi/gay culture and the pain it is filled with. It also painted a beautiful story of loving someone for who they are. I wish more people would be awakened to this. It has totally changed my view on what it’s like to hide who you are and how certain cultures handle that.

At this point, I think I'll run out of words to describe Akwaeke Emezi's writing long before they run out of stories.

I don't even know if I want to talk about this in terms of "decentering" whiteness, cis-ness or eurocentricism l because I didn't feel like anything had been shifted out of place when I read THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI, but rather it's a righting and a restoration. Emezi's characters are powerfully and viscerally drawn and there's real beauty in the communities they depict, even in critique. Writers like Emezi have converted me from a hater of multi-perspective narratives (it transpires I didn't hate them, I just hated hearing from ten different Janes in one book...) - it's a real gift to be able to weave so many authentic voices together to form such a vibrant narrative mosaic, a gift Emezi wields skilfully.

This novel screams from every page the necessity of living your life on your own terms and particularly challenged, for me, the notion that funerals are for the dead - in that our ownership of our own identities, and stories, shouldn't stop once we are no longer living.

I'm building my own canon of writers I can rely on to completely subvert my expectations yet consistently deliver. Undoubtedly, Akwaeke Emezi is one of them. This is a real love story.

Decolonising the curriculum: 'Romeo and Juliet'... 'Hamlet'... give the babies proper PROPER tragedy; break their hearts beautifully.

The Death of Vivek Oji begins with the day when the market was fired and Vivek was dead with the story describing Vivek's life. The body of Vivek was found in the veranda with blood stains and his mother was trying to find out how he died and who kept his body in the veranda. Vivek wants to live a different life but he felt his parents won't accept it so he doesn't say anything to them and only people to know what happens in his life was his friends. Vivek's mother is an Indian and they have a community called Nigerwives which is for the women who married Nigerians and living there.

I loved reading it and I felt pity for Vivek. When I came to how he died and his cousins love for him I felt so sad.
People don't live the way they want because of society and their parents are not open-minded and don't have acceptance. Parents should be open-minded to treat their children as friends and try to know what's going through them and accept them. If Vivek can trust his parents he may have existed in the world and lived a happy life.

"Some people can't see softness without wanting to hurt it"

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwake Emezi. Vivek dies on the day that the market burns down and is left by his parents doorstep, convinced that his death was a hate crime or a targeted attack. His mother tries to uncover the truth behind this through his friends and family. (I'll use Vivek he/him here)

This story is heartbreaking, it is sad and heavy and as I read through the book I felt sorry for every character. There's Vivek who knows that he exists outside of the norm and even though he's scared, he does not change himself. He lives, till his last day brushing shoulders with death and being okay with that as long as he gets to be himself. But there's only so much one can take alone so there's need for a support system which he does find in his friends while his family is struggling to find a name for what Vivek is and how to help him even though this help does more harm than good.
Through these pages, you get to experience Vivek from different perspectives and realize how utterly alone he really is. Osita's point of view is especially heart wrenching

What I loved the most about it is the attempt to affirm the queer African experience. There's this part in the book where Mary tells Kavita that Vivek is only safe because he's mixed and that sooner or later people are going to get tired and he'll get what's coming for him. Though partly true, I think that by Vivek reclaiming the name
'NNEMDI' makes him unapologetically tied to his fathers roots as he is to his mother. The idea of immortality/ continuity of life in the African naming system also makes this book hopeful.

This book had a lot more explicit scenes than I was expecting 😅

cw// queerphobia, conversion therapy, domestic violence mentioned, incest

"If nobody sees you, are you still there?"⁠

This book is so special; it’s one that grabbed me from the first sentence and wouldn’t let me go until the gripping conclusion. This will absolutely be one of my favorite books of the year.

A shorter read at just 240 pages, Emezi crafts a moving, spellbinding tale of Vivek and those who loved Vivek’s individuality, warm and kindness. It’s so hard to know what to say without spoiling the book and its emotional punch, but it deals with a number of deeper issues - to name just a few, it covers caste, gender identity, sexuality, transphobia, family dynamics, and religion.

This hyped book was worth every once of the hype, and I’ll be carrying it close to my heart for awhile.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. We look forward to adding it to our collection and recommending it to our patrons!

What a beautiful story. This one took me out of my comfort zone, I’ll admit, but I don’t think I’ve ever loved a fictional person more than I love Vivek. 💕 I devoured this in less than five hours but never wanted it to end.

Beautifully written tome navigating themes of feminine intuition, taboo, secrecy, repression, delusion and the dangers of holding someone back (both literally and figuratively, as the book skillfully explores).

At first I figured it was an allegory for transitioning, but I was delighted to see that the transition was made complete by the choices of those who were impacted by Nnmendi's voracious tenacity.

Emezi constantly reminds us that life and death are but one; that with destruction, comes rebirth, and vice versa, poignantly culminating in Osita, bringer of life and death, carrying Nnemdi home. It reminded me of a quote I read by Clarissa Pinkola Estés just yesterday: "To know a person's true name means to know the life path and the soul attributes of that person."

After Vivek Oji's mother finds the dead body of her son on her verandah wrapped in a piece of cloth, she can't stop asking questions. Who left him there? How did he die? She searches his room for hints, she questions all his friends but they all claim to know nothing. Her husband and friends try to console her but she can't give up trying to find out what happened to him.

Vivek was a shy and gentle boy. Born in Nigeria to an Indian mother and a Nigerian he was close to his cousin Osita and found friendship amongst the children of other immigrant wives married to Nigerians. The Nigerwives they called themselves, forming their own community and friendships. Before his death, Vivek had dropped out of University due to a mental health crisis, baffling his parents, but seemed to be improving after reconnecting with his cousin Osita and his old childhood friends.

Vivek's voice is only heard in the few short sections related by him, giving us a glimpse of his pain and confusion. I would have liked to have heard more of what he was experiencing from Vivek, however the story of his life and death is mostly seen through the eyes of others and we can only infer what is happening to him through their points of view. Although the novel is quite short, the writing is rich and powerful telling of the clash of cultures in the Nigeria of the 1990s; the traditional village family life of the older people and the more modern life in the cities, the immigrants who marry Nigerians but always remain outsiders as well as the strict moral views of society. The grief of his friends and family is heart wrenching, particularly that of his mother, Kavita, who is struggling to accept what became of her only child, one she might not have known as well as she thought. The revelation of how Vivek died was not what I thought it would be but was nonetheless very moving.

Wow! This story left me breathless and heartbroken.

This beautiful story starts with the death of Vivek. How his mother finds him dead on her doorstep. The story is told in different point of views from those that cared and loved Vivek. His father,friends and family. His close relationship with his cousin Osita. Most importantly it speaks of Vivek's life. The life he wanted to live but also the fear of acceptance from his family.
I can't put into words how this story is perfection. ONE of the best books of 2020

This novel is about the death of Vivek Oji, yes, but more so it's about his life—his growing up as a young man in Nigeria, experiencing some troubling symptoms including a series of blackouts, figuring out who he is and settling into that identity. Parts of the story are pretty brutal, both physically and emotionally, but it's beautifully written and well told.

This book.....It is beautifully, lyrically written—I bookmarked so many passages to consider & think about. It is a devistatingly heartbreaking story, about regret and love and friendship and finding your identity.
As a mother of a son, I really felt Vivek’s mother’s sorrow. What parent doesn’t fear that they may fail their child because they missed something? That their child has a whole different life that you don’t know about, because they choose not to share it with you? That is just a fact of growing up, of course, but it’s still painful....and how much more painful if that lack of knowledge helps to lead to your child’s death??
This was such a powerful book, & I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

A poignant read about birth and found families. The title refers to a literal death that kicks off the story and the figurative death of an identity. The writing style is descriptive and alluring. It's interesting how dramatically it varies between each of Emezi's novels. If I didn't know that they had written this, Freshwater, and Pet, I don't know if I would've guessed. I loved the camaraderie among the children of the Nigerwives and the tenderness they had for Nnemdi. Of all the characters, I most related to Juju wrestling with her internalized biphobia. I think the rawest moment was Vivek's parents mourning his death but also realizing that they wouldn't have accepted the whole truth if they'd lived. I'm still mulling on how Emezi entwines sensuality/ sexuality and family. Aside from me not comprehending Emezi's galaxy brain, I'm not Nigerian, and I know I missed a lot of cultural references.

The writing was beautiful!!

From the beginning you want to know what happened and the book flows.

It was a captivating story.

A stunning novel. It took me a while to get a handle on who all of the characters were, but the effort was well worth it. This novel is rich and powerful.

It begins in modern day Nigeria with a mother opening her front door to find her son’s dead body wrapped in a colorful fabric. The story unfolds through multiple perspectives and the events leading up to his death.

This is one of those books that leaves you breathless. It’s a coming of age story about love, friendship, family, and finding your identity within a culture that is at odds with gender identity/sexuality. The different perspectives of Vivek’s loved ones as they reconciled who they thought Vivek was, with who they learned he was post-death, was heart-wrenching. This book was so powerful and moving, and I loved every aching second of it. Just when you think you know what’s happening or how it’s going to end, you don’t. A beautiful story that was just as beautifully written; the fluidity of Emezi’s prose and vivid descriptions was mesmerizing. I can’t wait to read more from them.

Thank you Riverhead Books and NetGalley for the gifted e-copy, as well as Macmillan Audio and Libro.fm for the ALC

Well written, heart-wrenching book!

One day in Nigeria a woman finds the body of her son, Vivek, outside their house wrapped in colorful fabric, beaten to death. The book weaves the story of a mother desperate to understand what happened to her son in the hours between when she saw him earlier that morning.

Akwaeke Emezi wove a beautifully written story of love, grief, family, & identity. This is a book that will stay with you for a long time.

Thank you Akwaeke Emezi, Faber & Faber, and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheDeathofVivekOji #NetGalley

“There was something different about him, and it had nothing to do with how he looked on the outside. It was something more insidious, something coiled in his eyes that I’d never seen before. For the first time, I felt afraid around him. It didn’t feel like I was standing in a room with my cousin, with the man who was as close as I was ever going to get to a brother. Instead it felt like I’d fallen into the orbit of a stranger, like I’d stumbled across worlds and now I was here, out of breath and off balance.”

This was a deep and compelling story addressing being true to yourself and facing life head on amidst fear and the potential of being misunderstood. It was a beautiful, yet tragic story of love, acceptance, loss, betrayal, and secrets.

Vivek Oji has a beautiful spirit, but he’s always been a little different than the rest, a little hard to figure out and he’s often coined as “sick” or “different”. No one can quite figure it out, but Vivek lives by the beat of his own drum. Loving yet mysterious, and at times disconnected from the world and his family. His closest confidant, his cousin Osita, has had a hard time understanding Vivek as they grew into adulthood. But, they had a bond unlike any other. One day, Vivek’s mother opens her front door to find him dead on the doorstop. No one can understand what has happened, that has led to his untimely and tragic death. And so, the undoing of the mystery begins and we begin the journey of finding out what has transpired and led to his death.

As the characters struggle through their feelings and come through to realizations about themselves and each other the story unfolded.

“I knew exactly what he meant. It felt as if we had stepped out of everything we knew before and into something else entirely, as if what had just happened couldn’t have happened on the other side, only on this side.”

“You were the only person I could tell,” I said to Vivek, looking down at my hands. “So I came here.” He was silent for a moment. “Why did you need to tell anyone?” he asked, finally. “Why didn’t you just keep it a secret? Isn’t that what everyone does?”

Overall, this was a good book. At times I found it a little confusing to keep all of the characters straight and I think some of them really weren’t needed in the narrative. But, I would definitely recommend this read to anyone who might be considering picking it up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverhead books for the copy of this book in exchange for my review.

No question. A beautifully crafted story, like a painting, that's heartbreaking, tragic, poignant, emotional and very moving. I sat and read this in one sitting. Set in Nigeria the culture of the people came alive as did the sights and sounds of the market place and country. Some aspects are brutal and shocking, others the complete opposite. The ending was so bittersweet. It's not a long book but it is very powerful. The chapters are told by different people with Vivek's being very short which makes them hit home harder.
I absolutely loved this book. The main character's death is so annoying- by that I mean there was so much more to give, so much more and it's totally tragic that it will never be realised.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read a book I might not otherwise have found and it's a definite 5 stars from me