The Death of Vivek Oji

This book is full of juxtapositions. One minute it is steamy. The next it is disturbing. Soul destroying and then epically poignant. The characters constantly straddle a line between shame and acceptance, desire and disgust, expression and repression.

Vivek Oji is a a gay man who likes to wear drag and lives in contemporary Nigeria where just being gay is a death wish. Against all odds he manages to hide his secret and his sexuality from his parents but comes out to his friends and his cousin who agree to keep his secret. But his blissful bubble bursts and somewhat inevitably we start the novel with his death.

This started of as a slow burn but by chapter three, I was engrossed. Following a mystery set up of who killed Vivek and why? We traverse time periods, from Vivek's childhood, to his death and then from the perspectives of his loved ones, particularly his cousin following his death. These time periods are not chronological so we only get all the pieces of the puzzle at the end of the novel which I found satisfying and compelling.

This book will haunt me for a while. The sadness imbued as a reader by knowing and accepting Vivek's identity but knowing the Nigerian community never would, is painful. The pseudo sexual incestual relationship between the two cousins also made for extremely uncomfortable reading. I loved both characters and wanted them to be happy in their own skin but found their familial and sexual feelings for one another disturbing.

This story is complex and the relationships between characters are gnarly and deeply hidden. Emezi is an extremely talented storyteller and this novel is well layered and multifaceted. Vivek will stay with me. An incandescent character. I am very impressed with this novel and will be going back and reading this authors other works. A sweeping and bittersweet story of love and loss.

Thanks to Faber and Faber, the author and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.