This is an excellent, if unsettling novel. I can't actually say I enjoyed reading it, the realisations for some of the characters came too late and thThis is an excellent, if unsettling novel. I can't actually say I enjoyed reading it, the realisations for some of the characters came too late and the author is expert at conveying the disassociated feelings of the intersex character of Vivek Oji and those characters that are close to them. We know that Vivek Oji dies, it's in the title, but we don't know why and that compels the reader to churn through the pages. The novel is set in Nigeria and is date stamped by the death of a Nigerian leader, Sani Abacha in 1998, the same year the main character, Vivek Oji dies. The novel has a more contemporary feeling than events that happened over 20 years ago, which made some of the surrounding characters attitudes even more frustrating to me, until I was able to really place the time and realign my expectations to what was happening then. I read the novel as part of my 2021 around the world challenge and because I'm keen to read "own voices" authors works. It's also unsettling enough and ghostly enough to be an above average Halloween read. Very close to a 5 star read, however, it lacked the profound feeling I experience for a 5 star read. ...more
Loading...
