Hi friends, happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m posting my review of Akwaeke Emezi’s novel The Death of Vivek Oji.

The Death of Vivek Oji by: Akwaeke Emezi: Vivek Oji has struggled all his life to figure out who he is, with the help and support of his friends he’s been able to accept his true self. But just because his small circle has accepted him, doesn’t mean the people of his small town in Nigeria have. One night, while out he’s killed and left on his parent’s doorstep to be found by his mother. Now his mother is on a witch hunt to find out the truth of his death. This novel took a lot of hard hits and was more intense than the reader had first anticipated. The title of this novel takes on a double meaning, which was so cleverly done and the author did such a beautiful job of handling the topics. This novel started off a bit bumpy; the reader was left sort of confused as to who was who and what was actually happening. As we moved through, the plot became more clear; it had a bit of a back and forth between past and present, which probably didn’t help with trying to follow along with the story, but by the end it really paid off and was effective to tell a whole comprehensive story. The characters were so raw and real. They all really struggled in different ways, yet watching them come together in their grief was heartwarming to read. All of the secondary characters loved the main character, Vivek, in different ways so it was really beautiful to see all the different perspectives bring him back to life briefly and bring meaning to it. The journey they all had to go through in their sadness, especially his mother was painful, but the way she came out the other side in the end was powerful to read. That ending was just so heart wrenching in its complexity. It was the freedom and the love, the hate and the pain all come together as one as we learn the real story. This was short, but a very impactful read that really pulls at the reader’s emotions; highly recommend.