Early Review: You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

 You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

by Akwaeke Emezi

Pub Date: May 24, 2022

🌺 5 stars out of 5 🌺

☙ ☙ ☙

Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again.

It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career.

She’s even started dating the perfect guy, but their new relationship might be sabotaged before it has a chance by the overwhelming desire Feyi feels every time she locks eyes with the one person in the house who is most definitely off-limits—his father.

This new life she asked for just got a lot more complicated, and Feyi must begin her search for real answers. Who is she ready to become? Can she release her past and honor her grief while still embracing her future? And, of course, there’s the biggest question of all—how far is she willing to go for a second chance at love? Akwaeke Emezi’s vivid and passionate writing takes us deep into a world of possibility and healing, and the constant bravery of choosing love against all odds.

☙ ☙ ☙

This book kind of blew me away. It's so beautifully written, has beautiful characters and beautiful themes. It does an amazing job of dealing realistically with grief, survivor's guilt, and trying to move on; with men's feelings of entitlement towards women; with what roles we allow sex and attraction to play in relationships.

At the beginning, we meet Feyi who is ready to start living again five years after losing her husband in a tragic accident. She attempts different methods of making connections with people - initially keeping it to sex-only, as any emotional attachment reminds her too much of the intimacy she shared with her husband. Then she moves on to a 'let be friends first' relationship. Third time's the charm when she meets Alim, though. It's a science lab up in here with all the chemistry going on between them. But things get complicated.

I love how Feyi's emotional strength is such an inherent part of her character yet we're still allowed to see her struggle. Emezi never tries to tell us those are mutually exclusive states. Interestingly, the book spends little time in the past. Everything we gather about Feyi's tragedy is from the thoughts and feelings she's having right now. The book follows where Feyi leads - and that is forward. She is determined to start living again. (I truly appreciated how Emezi never relies on the accident itself to provide emotional impact or to evoke pity for Feyi. I never felt she manipulates the reader by pushing the tragedy angle.)

I liked the relationship between Feyi and Joy. Joy provided the encouragement and support Feyi needed while also holding her accountable like any bestie would do. What I loved most was that it always felt like a primary relationship in the book rather than having Joy be relegated to sidekick status as a secondary player.

The writing here is just gorgeous. With an economical use of words, Emezi packs in a whole lot to say about how hard and complicated it is to grieve, to start over, and to navigate new relationships. It felt very grounded in the real world in a very unvarnished, unflinching way.

This is a beautiful story of love and loss and loving again. It also has excellent casual queer rep and an all-POC cast. Emezi has written truly amazing characters in Feyi, Joy, and the others. I have no doubt this will be in my Best of 2022 list. A very beautiful book, I highly recommend!

Thank you Atria Books and Edelweiss for sending me the ARC.