The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

• Publisher: Fable & Fable, August 20th 2020
• Genre: Literary Fiction, LGBTQ+
• Format: eARC
• Page Count: 256 pages
• My Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)

I know what they say about men who allow other men to penetrate them. Ugly things; ugly words. Calling them women, as if that’s supposed to be ugly, too. I’d heard it since secondary school, and I knew what that night was supposed to make me. Less than a man—something disgusting, something weak and shameful. But if that pleasure was supposed to stop me from being a man, then fine. They could have it. I’d take the blinding light of his touch, the blessed peace of having him so close, and I would stop being a man. I was never one to begin with, anyway.

Content warnings: death, incest, rape, infidelity, abuse, misogyny

I don’t know how Emezi does it, but they managed to make Vivek’s story breathtaking.