Yayyyy, I finally get to give my review on this book. I was done with it last week and can I just say that this book took me on a ride like no other. I wasn’t feeling out of sorts or anything. The title drew me in and from the very first page, it felt like I was in on something raw and powerful. What happens when you fall for the one man you can’t have? Lol, I’m already getting ahead of myself. Let’s get into the review.
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty
Written by Akwaeke Emezi, who is also the author of the renowned The Death of Vivek Orji, this exceptional piece was published on 25th January, 2022. It has about 312 pages.
Summary of the Novel
It’s been five years. Five painful years since the incident and Feyi, a Nigerian artist, is yet to move on from the car accident that took the life of her husband and best friend, while barely leaving her with a scratch. Five years have passed and Feyi moves from Cambridge to New York to get back on the horse and start life anew after merely existing for so long. In her late twenties, all possibilities are opened to her. She aims to get the awkward sexual encounter with a stranger out of the way, and that’s when she meets Milan.
After a steamy and dangerous night with Milan, he becomes a surface friend she can lean on even though things don’t work out romantically for them. It is on one of those dates with Milan, that she meets Nasir, his friend. Nasir falls head over heels for Feyi and despite the attraction she feels for Milan, she’s not quite ready to commit. But then, courtesy of Nasir, she gets an offer she cannot refuse in the Caribbean as a means of showcasing her art in an art installation. Unknown to Feyi, the entire trajectory of her life is about to change because the very day she lands at the island, she meets Alim, an international and world-class chef and who is also....Nasir’s father. Just how wrong....or right can this get?
My Review and Rating
This book raised eyebrows. Goodness me, it raised a lot of eyebrows, mine included. But that’s if you look at it in the strict romance novel kind of way. And I don’t feel you can quite view this book a romance novel. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t particularly follow the ethos or format most romance books do, or because it was far too messy for words. Either way, I loved the uniqueness it portrayed. From the title, I didn’t expect it to have much to do with romance anyway.
Age gap romances are quite rare in mainstream fiction and there’s a 19-year age gap between our love interests. As if it couldn’t get messier, Alim is Nasir’s dad so the disapproval for everything this book stands for is paramount. It messily explores the themes of love, loss, grief, trauma and finally healing in the most unexpected of ways. I understand that the decisions made by Feyi, from Milan to Nasir and then Alim are quite questionable. And while I did feel for Nasir and the entire predicament, I agreed with Feyi when she said she didn’t owe him anything because he listened to her when she said she was not ready.
Apart from the drama in this book that was unexpectedly and unapologetically messy, I loved the chemistry that Feyi and Alim had. The connection was instant and powerful. It also helped that they were both bisexual and had gone through heart-rending grief that bonded them in a painfully beautiful way. I also loved the way they proceeded to talk through everything. They knew how deep and genuine their connection was but they didn’t immediately say, “Efff it, let’s do as we like.” Through the surprise, fear and hope, they listened and reassured each other every step of the way.
For us romance girlies, we want to be attracted to our female lead’s love interest as well. We want to see what she sees as she looks at the one she loves. I don’t know what it was but I couldn’t help not loving Alim, even though he was everything desirable and more. With Nasir, I felt that attraction but since I noticed that we were barely three pages in and he was head over heels, I just knew it wouldn’t work out. Alim was perfection itself. And somehow, I just couldn’t deal with that. Lol.
I saw a lot of negative ratings of this book because of how intimately connected Feyi’s love interests were. It’s obvious that her hot girl summer was not everyone’s cup of tea. But hey, life could be that messy. And the heart wants what the heart wants, you know. Deal with it. It pleased me that the ending was left open in a happy for now (HFN) and not the conventional happily ever after (HEA) way. Not all knots were tied, but that’s just what makes the ending to this masterpiece just right.
Akwaeke Emezi in You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty outdid herself in my opinion. And I can’t wait to read more of her books. It’s a 4.6/5 for me.
Jhymi🖤
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