#the death of vivek oji

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

goodreads

Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men.

But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this book yet, since I know it includes some tough topics, but I'm really excited to get around to it someday :)

#the death of vivek oji #akwaeke emezi #trans books #trans lit #trans literature #lgbt books #lgbt lit #lgbt literature #nonbinary #own voices #contemporary fiction #polls #to read

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 24 - The Death of Vivek Oji by Awaeke Emezi

I always feel slightly weird trying to organize my thoughts after reading actual literary fiction, if only because it’s such a small slice of my reading diet and there’s so much of it I’m totally ignorant of. This book is, I’m sure, ably in conversation with a dozen others in ways I totally failed to detect as I read it.

So, having accepted that I’m probably going to embarrass myself trying to talk about it; I overall really enjoyed this book, with a few somewhat major caveats.

The story jumps across time and perspective quite a bit, but it’s set in southern Nigeria, centred around a pair of brothers, their wives, and, especially, their two children. The eponymous Vivek Oji is one of those children, and the book is about them even though they honestly don’t get particularly much screen time, and also the book opens with their mother finding their corpse wrapped in a carpet and left in front of the family’s front door. The book bounces back and forth before and after that death, on the one hand giving everyone’s life stories and on the other following the mother’s increasingly desperate attempts to investigate a death the police don’t show any interest in.

So this is very much capital q capital l Queer Lit – the whole central drama around Vivek’s death is that they were flagrantly gender nonconforming and (as becomes clear very quickly) either genderfluid or a trans woman, with the universal assumption being that they were lynched by homophobes during a riot. A pretty major subplot is their cousin Osita (one of our main POVs) accepting that he’s queer, and the contrast of the supportive little queer friend group they both find compared to the conservative, homophobic world they live in is a major theme.

The prose is really just lovely – literary is the word for a reason, I suppose – and honestly close to breathtaking at points. Almost every character rings extremely true to life, which is to say deeply flawed and utterly unselfaware about why they do the things they do, but in a way that’s actually usually (usually) pretty endearing. (There’s so many affairs among the older generation you’re rather left wondering what the point of marriage even is to begin with, but as far as I can tell that’s not that far from true to life).

I can’t really comment on the accuracy of the book’s depiction of Nigerian culture, save that nothing was so totally unbelievable or obviously wrong it stood out to me. It at least felt very real, full of little quotidian details and minor hypocrisies and other touches that really made the book’s settings live and breath.

My issues with the book are fairly few, but they’re unfortunately pretty structural. Mostly it’s with Vivek themselves. They’re a very identifiable character archetype – perpetually innocent and idealistic to the point where they’re treated by the narrative as somewhere between a holy mystic and perpetual child, incapable of ever really explaining themselves but this sort of inspirational idol in other people’s lives and, of course, dead. Even when well-written, the whole archetype still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

The other thing is just – spoilers for the very, very end of the book, I suppose – the reveal of just how they actually died. They weren’t killed by a lynch mob, you see – Osita, their cousin/boyfriend and one of the main POV characters, eventually reveals that he had been trying to convince them not to go out in public wearing a dress when a riot was clearly about to start, and when they insisted on going down to the market anyway got frustrated and shoved them. Which, entirely by accident, sent them tripping over the pavement, falling to the ground, hitting their head on the curb, and near-instantly dying.

Thematically it’s clear to the point of browbeating – literally, not killed by someone for being out in public, but by the fear of how people might react to coming out – but I just found it incredibly bathetic? And slightly annoyed at how obvious and blatant it made the author’s puppet strings.

Anyway, complaints aside, still a beautifully written book.

#book review #the death of vivek oji #Awaeke Emezi #literature

[pensivegladiola]

Emotional Damage:

Cry your heart out over these novels:

#books #literature #book recommendations #fiction #sad books #moving books #tragedy #a little life #the death of vivek oji #the nickel boys #radio silence #hanya yanagihara #colson whitehead #tiffany mcdaniel #alice oseman #john knowles #book covers

[mimisreadingnook]

My most recent book haul 📚 I got these books secondhand and I want to read all of them before I buy more books! First up: Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead 😄

#mine #books #reading #book haul #tbr #to be read #booklr #bookblr #great circle #everyone in this room will someday be dead #bitter #the death of vivek oji #the book of form and emptiness

[nerves-nebula]

been listening to a more Nigerian audiobooks recently. didn't realize how nice it would be to hear people who sound like my dad tell me stories. I've heard so few people who sound like him in my life.

also so far all the audiobooks have had multiple different readers for characters instead of one person doing all the voices which I personally really like.

#nnstuff #im normal but. but its. its really nice idk #rambling #the death of vivek oji #audiobooks #vagabonds #eloghosa osunde

[finest--hours]

when akwaeke emezi said "but heaviness found me and I couldn’t do anything about it" i really felt that

#akwaeke emezi #the death of vivek oji

[npdclaraoswald]

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi🤝Earthlings by Sayaka Murata🤝booktube/bookstagram darlings that get recommended all the time with nary a single warning that they heavily feature incest

I'm absolutely not saying the topic shouldn't be discussed in literature, but considering that the people who I follow on those platforms tend to provide trigger warnings- if not detailed ones then at least ones for when a common trigger is a main theme of a book- I'm surprised these two books slip through the cracks given how popular they are. So, hey, if you're planning to read one or both of these, here's a warning

#the death of vivek oji #earthlings sayaka murata

[theravenkin]

constantly reading books or poems or watching movies just consuming media that i need to know the meaning of but can't quite get to the bottom of. and like logically i can analyze the text and state the themes and the purpose and whatnot but there's always something lurking underneath that i can't put a name to, that makes me feel such a thing, something that was definitely intentional, it was a creative choice but i can't figure out how or why. i look for sparknotes, for essays analyzing what i am trying to, but there's never any, not for the works that beg of it the most. almost like these works are scaring the insight away. i just want to talk to these creators and ask "why, why are you haunting me like this?" but i think that's probably what those creators wanted in the first place.

#help #not okay #too many things in too little time and my brain is akkdkdkdjdj #literature #poetry #the two things that inspired this breakdown specifically are #the death of vivek oji #and #flowers in the attic #of all things? #these things are written to be haunting i guess #:((( #raven rants

[ceaselesslyborne]

Recent Reads

1. The Disaster Tourist: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

An interesting and thought provoking plot that introduced and explored a range of perspectives on what, I hope, is the no-longer-shadowy world of disaster tourism. I was impressed with the simplicity and ease with which the protagonist and reader were quickly immersed in vividly precarious world. It was both strange and disturbingly real. It was somewhat predictable, but there were a number of well developed characters considering the length of the story, and though I’m not normally a fan of ambiguity, it made a pleasant change to confront a protagonist whose fate/motivations/character are never explicitly revealed or judged. The reader is left to draw their own conclusions, to evaluate their own opinions.

2. Redhead by the Side of the Road: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A slow one, but poignant and, for me, definitely one that resonated personally. A powerful, bittersweet, but ultimately hopeful ending, which honestly... I needed. The characters made the novel, and though I don’t think this book is for everyone, I found warmth and humour and understanding in Tyler’s words that make me want to read more of her work.

3. Things we Say in the Dark: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A really fun seasonal read with a unique and compelling and clever structure. I genuinely can’t choose a favourite story/section; I found the collection to be very cohesive and consistently strong. Logan is a skilled writer easily able to inspire fear, dread, anxiety, disgust, and a host of other heart-pounding sensations. I chose to rate it as I did purely because I felt the tropes and tone were too familiar, though I suspect this has more to do with me becoming slightly desensitised and needing to increase the diversity of my reading choices - or at least switch more frequently between genres. That being said, I really want to read more of Logan’s books!

4. The Death of Vivek Oji: ⭐️⭐️

Struggling to articulate exactly why, but this just... didn’t sit well with me. There was some wonderful explorations of themes such as loyalty, honesty, identity, and family, but it was heavy. Bleak. I understand that stories like this are important, necessary, and that we cannot always have happy or even hopeful endings, but I’ve read too many similar tragedies. There was no payoff for the emotional investment, and it’s difficult to invest in the first place when you know the fate of the protagonist from the beginning, and the protagonist seems... content with that fate? Maybe I just read this at the wrong time. (Pro tip: don’t read sad books when you’re sad!)

5. Ghosted: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Some wonderful character development throughout, and definitely made a significant emotional impact. I do feel that the story drew on slightly longer than necessary, but the reader was kept guessing and I was happy enough to follow the clues and reflect on the myriad relationships and characters offered.

6. White Ivy: ⭐️⭐️

I was disappointed by this book, which had such a promising premise, and started so strongly! Yang is, no doubt, a skilled writer, but it was challenging to persist with a story in which none of the characters seemed to have any notable, let alone likeable, traits. The pacing felt off, and I found myself wanting to skim through most of the book whilst other significant moments seemed to be passed over without making the impact they could have. Though it wasn’t a bad read, it didn’t feel like anything new or remarkable.

7. Earthlings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ok, so this book is definitely not for everyone, and anyone picking it up expecting another Convenience Store Woman is... in for a shock™️! Please research content/trigger warnings before reading! Heartbreaking and heartwarming and disturbing and, yes, gross, this will satisfy your need for something strange. It was a good palette cleanser (or warper) after some underwhelming and sluggish recent reads, and left me with a not-unpleasant out of body sensation wondering wtf I’d just read. Simply put, this was my jam.

8. Our Wives Under the Sea: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First, a very unrelated note: I read and finished this in the course on one stormy, muggy night which definitely set The Mood™️. I’m not quite sure how to discuss this book. Armfield has captured the sea itself: something vast and unfathomable, changeable, consuming, incomprehensible, and primordial. Dreamy and viscerally, elementally haunting, Our Wives is surreal, horror adjacent, but hits in a very tangible way. I personally loved the style, and the dual perspective and relatively short chapters made what could have been a slow read a very easy one. Through a fantastical lens, Armfield invites us to explore ideas about relationships, communication, trauma, and grief, loss, and reality. A lot is up for interpretation, and I think you could find something new in this book with every re-read.

9. Becoming My Sister: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Okay, so on the scale of ‘normal’ to ‘introduced to V. C. Andrews at a wildly inappropriate age by a mother who clearly had no memory of the book she’d just given her daughter, and no way to anticipate the oncoming obsession’, it’s pretty clear where I fall. Personally I’ve never been disappointed by an Andrews book, and this one was no exception. The writing is witty and thrilling and subtly eerie, and Andrews is absolutely fantastic at drawing the reader into the grip of twisted, claustrophobic family dynamics. Her characters are lifelike, haunted and haunting. She has a singular understanding of the pain and beauty of girlhood, womanhood, and coming of age. I would almost describe this as a ‘guilty pleasure’ read but honestly I’m not sorry. No shame.

10. Ghosts: ⭐️⭐️

Such a promising premise, and so many elements I can usually connect with, but... I think this is just a story I’m tired of reading. It was vague/disconnected and judgemental in a way that reduced the impact of the book overall, at least for me. There was little to humanise or identify in the protagonist (or indeed most of the characters), and I felt the most interesting aspects of the book were not given the focus they deserved, both of which meant key emotional moments fell flat for me. I think for the right person, at the right time, this is a beautiful and moving story; that person just wasn’t me.

#bookblr #book review #bookworm #cj goes to the library #the disaster tourist #yun ko eun #redhead by the side of the road #anne tyler #things we say in the dark #Kirsty Logan #the death of vivek oji #akwaeke emezi #ghosted #jenn ashworth #white ivy #susie yang #earthlings #sayaka murata #our wives under the sea #julia armfield #becoming my sister #v. c. Andrews #ghosts #dolly alderton

[unrelatedwaffle]

aside from being unable to get past the incest, vivek felt very two-dimensional. yes, they were at least nonbinary, but we got almost nothing in their own words about their inner life. it would be one thing if it was structured like "you only hear about this character from others' points of view," but there WERE vivek chapters that provided almost nothing? idk, we saw vivek chiefly as an object and it bothers me. i know almost nothing about them except they were amab and struggled with their gender identity. we got so little depth about the blackouts or their family life or their hopes and dreams. vivek was just someone for everyone else to project their feelings on. maybe that's the point, but for a book ostensibly about their life and death i feel like i don't even care that they died.

actually i feel more broadly that i didn't know almost any of the characters well enough to care about them. we got a lot about osita and kavita and just little pockets of everyone else. too many characters with really high emotional stakes i didn't feel. sorry your dad is shitty juju but i feel like i'm just hearing third hand gossip in line at the supermarket.

#the death of vivek oji

[t-ess-e]

Just some favorite quotes

#the lost hero #to kill a kingdom #the death of vivek oji #elian #zeus lore olympus #percy pjo #percy and annabeth #percy jackon and the olympians #jason grace #piper mclean

[motherfuckingampersands]

just finished the audiobook of The Death of Vivek Oji and simply bawling my eyes out and absolutely blown away by Yetide Badaki and Chukwudi Iwuji—these narrators!!! the way they shared the voice of Vivek, the sheer emotion they packed into every word.

i'm. just going to be inconsolable for a bit!!!

this isn't even my first read of this book!!! but hearing two artists bring Akwaeke Emezi's words to life is just. T.T

#the death of vivek oji #akwaeke emezi #i don't even LIKE audiobooks #so every time i find one that i love i feel the need to scream and shout

[literary-illuminati]

Starting The Death of Vivek Oji and being violently reminded that, oh right, litfic can be good.

#I really do read shamefully little stuff that isn't either genre of nonfiction #the death of vivek oji #Awaeke Emezi #literature

[mimisreadingnook]

current read 🤎

#books #booklr #reading #book recommendations #mine #current read #aesthetic #dark academia #the death of vivek oji #akwaeke emezi

[commonplacenook]

Alone is a feeling you can get used to, and it's hard to believe in a better alternative.

Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji

#quotes #fiction #booklr #akwaeke emezi #the death of vivek oji

[runningfromadream]

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

Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji

#The Death of Vivek Oji #Akwaeke Emezi #quote #quotes #people #softness #want #hurt