Review of YOU MADE A FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY by Akwaeke Emezi (New Release)

 2.5 Stars

I should have hesitated requesting an ARC of a romance, but I didn’t because of the author whose name often appears on awards lists.  I wish I had hesitated because this book didn’t change my opinion of the genre.

Feyi  Adekola is a young widow; her husband Jonah was killed in an accident five years earlier.  She lives with her best friend Joy who convinces Feyi to begin dating again.  An encounter with one man leads to another with Nasir who takes her on a luxury trip to a tropical island where his father Alim, a celebrity chef, has arranged for Feyi to be one of the artists in an exhibit.  As soon as Feyi meets Alim, she is attracted to him and quickly becomes obsessed with him. 

Feyi is not a likeable character.  Having grieved for five years, she wants to be alive again.  (It’s impossible to not know this desire because the word alive appears 35 times in the text!)  But she makes such stupid and dangerous choices.  Who has sex with a stranger in a bathroom and insists he not wear a condom?  She comes across as so selfish:  she transforms from a grieving widow to choosing to do whatever makes her feel alive.  Her attitude seems to be to do what makes her happy and the heck with everything else?!  After an argument, she is focused on her material possessions:  “’He threw out all my stuff.” 

The relationship between Feyi and Alim has so many issues.  First of all, there’s the love at first sight trope.  As soon as she sees Alim, Feyi is dazzled by his handsomeness.  This is supposed to be the foundation of a relationship that is “deep enough to uproot lives”?  Feyi worries about how Jonah would react to her having a meaningful relationship with someone, but she doesn’t worry about what he would think of her having casual, unprotected sex with a stranger?  Finally, connecting with someone who has experienced a loss/trauma similar to yours is known as trauma bonding; however, confusing shared trauma for compatibility is one of the most toxic relationship patterns you can follow. 

Repetition is a major problem.  Conversations between Feyi and Alim are long-winded and repetitive.  They keep having a “should we/shouldn’t we” discussion.  The same problem occurs in conversations between Feyi and Joy.  They are supposed to be best friends, but they never talk about anything other than sex and their sexual partners.  Amidst those conversations, don’t look for plot:  the summary at the beginning is the entire plot.  And on the topic of needless repetition . . . how often does the reader need to be told how beautiful Feyi is and how handsome Alim is?!   Even the writing style is repetitive:  “Feyi cut her a look” and “Joy cut her a look” and “Feyi cut her eyes at him” and “She cut her eyes at him” and “Nasir cut his eyes at her” and “Feyi cut her eyes at her best friend” and “Alim cut his eyes at his son” and “Lorraine cut her eyes at him” and “Alim cut his eyes at her” and “Feyi cut her eyes at her best friend”  and “He cut his eyes at her” and “Joy cut her eyes at Feyi” and “Feyi cut her eyes at him” and “Alim cut his eyes at her” and “Feyi cut her eyes at him”?!!

There are other cringe-worthy expressions:  “There were so many lessons she’d love to learn from his hands” and “there was no way she could say no” and “’Why did you have to kiss me?’”  Some scenes are cringe-worthy:  for instance, the two kitchen scenes (when Feyi licks mango foam off Alim’s finger and when Alim “stepped behind her and brought his arms around, lightly placing his hands over hers”) are so overdone!

Feyi is supposedly an artist, one good enough to have been in exhibits.  Why, then, does she devote almost no time to her art?  Getting ready for her trip to the tropical island where she will have a piece of art in an exhibit, not once does she worry about her art; instead, “She’d spent four days packing, trying on every single outfit under Joy’s critical eye, picking out jewelry and sandals and sundresses, makeup and a bottled array of oils, from coconut to coffee to jojoba laced with tea tree for her scalp.”  Art is not central to her life because she “stepped into her artist persona” only when necessary and worries more that her braids in an updo “was totally the wrong look for this outfit”?!  Art certainly doesn’t seem to be a passion. 

I could applaud the inclusion of bisexual characters who are not often included in mainstream fiction, but merely mentioning that Feyi and Alim have had same-sex relationships in the past hardly qualifies as an exploration of bisexuality. 

The book is about taking a second chance at love, but I wish I hadn’t taken a chance on this romance. 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.