Aug 3

Aug 3 The Death of Vivek Oji

Author: Akwaeke Emezi
Publisher: Riverhead
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew?

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. 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.

Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations — a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.

TL;DR Review

The Death of Vivek Oji is a raw, gutting, absolutely beautiful book about a young Nigerian person navigating gender dysphoria. It’s incredible.

For you if: You are looking for trans/non-binary/Nigerian own voices stories.

Full Review

“I kept the book for the title, for how it was spelled. Beautyful. I had no idea why that spelling was chosen, but I liked it because it kept the beauty intact. It wasn’t swallowed, killed off with an i to make a whole new word. It was solid; it was still there, so much of it that it couldn’t fit into a new word, so much fullness. You got a better sense of exactly what was causing that fullness. Beauty.
Beauty.
I wanted to be as whole as that word.”

I’m not sure I can do this book justice in a review. There’s no doubt it will be one of my favorites of this year.

As the title implies, the book centers on the death of a young person in Nigeria named Vivek Oji. In fact, that happens on the very first page. The rest of the novel switches between three POVs: Vivek’s cousin Osita, Vivek from beyond the grave, and a more untethered third-person narration that usually focuses on Vivek’s mother. Throughout, we learn more and more about who Vivek was, and we spiral toward a conclusion that promises answers about how and why Vivek died.

What we get is a searing, gutting, heartbreakingly sad and beautiful and tragic and hopeful picture of family, both blood and found; self, both inward and outward; gender and sexuality in a country bound to traditional gender roles; grief, love, beauty. And an ending that will leave you in the best kind of puddle.

My favorite passages, by far, were those that came in Vivek’s voice. Emezi’s command of language and metaphor, particularly in bringing self-love despite gender dysphoria to life, is so good that I don’t even have any adjectives. After every Vivek chapter, I wrote in my reading journal, wow, that was beautiful.

And still, I’m not sure I have many more words for you than that. Wow, that was beautiful.