The Death of Vivek Oji

What up book people? I am here to help you add more melanin to your reading list by giving you a quick review of books I have read by Black authors. I’m still not feeling 100% but the good news is that being stuck in bed means lots of time to read and more books to recommend.

So now for today’s book. It’s The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi.

This book has a few triggers so head over to StoryGraph to check content warnings.

Now you may have seen several posts on BookTok and Bookstagram about this author’s newest book - You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty that came out a week ago cuz the cover is everything. While I haven’t read that one yet, this is from their backlist and was a five star read for me back in 2020. This book introduced me to their writing and I love it.

This is a coming of age story following Vivek Oji. His mother finds his body wrapped in fabric on her porch in Nigeria. It looks like he has been beaten to death but there is no explanation for his mother as to how or why this happened to him. The story follows Vivek’s life from adolescence into adulthood as we witness his friendships while he grows into understanding his sexuality. The story is one of gender identity and cultural acceptance.

Now no exaggeration, I bawled my eyes out reading this book. So I am interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments.