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Darling Readers, we invite you to gird your loins as the beginning of Maas Distraction 2023 is upon us. In the coming week we shall begin our re-read of the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas. If you would like to join us on the adventure you know where to find us on Instagram and Facebook. We’ll keep the world posted there.
I have some disclaimers I want to introduce about today’s title. While You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi was nominated for Best Romance in the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards, if I ask for a romance novel, and you recommend this, I will have so much judgment on your reading tastes. Technically, there is a romance, and there is a HEA, HOWEVER, this is NOT the romance novel I was looking for! I wouldn’t hesitate to describe it as a love story, though. Also, this was not the right book for me at the time I read it. I was, and am, experiencing my own grief at the loss of a close friend, and grieving for the loss experienced by his wife, children, and family. Reading a book I didn’t know (or more accurately didn’t remember) was about grief wasn’t the greatest of choices, and my review will be influenced by that. My view on how this title is not representative of the romance genre and shouldn’t be classified as such stands separate from that, and I’ll expound upon it below.
If one reads the marketing copy (which I sometimes do, and almost never remember), one knows You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi is the story of Feyi as she journeys into becoming a person after the loss of her husband. She has an amazing cheerleader and sounding board in her BFF / roommate Joy, and she’s putting one foot in front of the other. Antics occur, and she finds herself dating a great guy who arranges for her to have an amazing opportunity to exhibit her art and a fabulous stay in a luxury home on a tropical island, complete with a live-in celebrity chef, his dad. While the story revolves around Feyi finding her new self, and figuring out how to proceed when she has a crush on her not-quite-boyfriend’s dad, it’s truly about so much more than that. Themes include grief, overcoming, healing, family, friendship, maturity, and the parent-child relationship. I really enjoyed the way art and cuisine showed up in the background in a big way for the characters in this title.
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is a fabulously written title, with lush descriptions of the scenery from the brownstone in New York to the vibrant sunrises and everything in between. The supporting characters are dimensional, even though Feyi is the focus, and I really liked Joy, Nasir, and Alim being so thoughtfully and thoroughly described to the reader. While I’m definitely interested in reading more from Emezi, I am not going to reread this title. As I mentioned, it was the wrong book at the wrong time for me, I think it’s more than that. I couldn’t find anyone to root for in this title. Feyi seemed to be leaping without looking or considering on quite a few occasions, with no thought of the consequences. She’s just barreling through life, and it really bothered me. Alim is somewhat of a tragic figure, but I also take issue with some of what has happened in his life off the page, and I just struggle. I think I’d have had less of a hard time during another time, but my rating is affected by how I experience each book, so this one is getting three stars from me. It’s beautifully executed, but I don’t like it. That is what my issue with calling You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty a romance novel – I had no emotional satisfaction at the end of this title. I’m wondering what in the crazy pants is going to happen next and how in the world there’s an uplifting epilogue for these two, because it’s not on the page. I’m also sure the lack of bow didn’t help my lack of adoration for this text.
What’s a title you appreciate for the execution, but didn’t enjoy?
~Nikki
Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian-born multidisciplinary artist and writer who was called a Next Generation Leader by TIME Magazine, is a National Book Foundation ‘5 under 35’ honoree, and has given talks at such prestigious locales as Princeton University, Meta, and MoMA to name a few. They have seven published works in multiple genres including today’s romance title and another fiction title, two YA titles, a poetry collection, and two autobiographical works which includes their debut, semi-autobiographical novel, Freshwater. Emezi is a multiple times New York Times Bestselling author, Freshwater was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, named a Best book of 2018 by multiple entities, and won multiple awards and was as finalist for numerous other awards and accolades. Emezi was awarded a Global Arts Fund Grant in 2017 for their video art, a 2017 Sozopol Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction. The screen rights for You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty were won at auction for Amazon Studios spearheaded by Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society production company. They have been photographed by Annie Leibovitz, graced the cover of TIME Magazine, and profiled in the February 2018 issue of Vogue.
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty was an escapist read for me. Nikki found a mirror with the grief of the characters and her (our) grief of recent loss, whereas I focused on Feyi’s process of finding her joy in what life has left her. The joy of her friends, her lovers, and the joy of finding someone who sees and loves the person you are – not the person they want you to be. I really resonated with Feyi’s lack of confidence in her career progression. The entire reason for her going on an island trip with Nasir was because her art was to be shown at a gallery with other Black artists. By this account, she is a successful contemporary artist whose work is known by curators, collectors, and patrons outside of the Northeast United States. The following line was a mirror for me: “A brief pang of envy shot through her—so much of her time was spent in uncertainty, wondering if she could be doing more with her work, if she was just coasting while funded with blood money.” I ask a similar question all the time, coasting on my husband’s income while I struggle to fund my business and supplement his income while still being asked for and looked to for advice and guidance from friends, clients, and other agents. I’m busy all the time but not always with actions that will produce income now. I tell myself I am planting seeds, but there are only so many seeds that will actually grow into something fruitful.
Truthfully, I loved You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty. It is raw and messy and inherently human. I had been in a bit of a reading slump (still kind of am, truthfully, it’s hard to find the proper escapist reads that I don’t know I need until I start them, but I digress) and it helped me lose myself in something so different from my reality that I barely put the book down. I read the majority of it in about two sittings. I’m giving Emezi’s genre-bending romance novel 4 stars. It more than exceeded expectations, but I am also not likely to re-read it, nor would I recommend it to someone looking for a ‘romance novel.’ At the back of the book there’s a transcript of “A Conversation with Akwaeke Emezi” and there is this answer that I just adored:
Who doesn’t want to read a DILF novel?? (Actually, quite a few people.) In the words of the Marie Kondo meme, I love mess. I think it’s fascinating what people will do when they prioritize their pleasure.
And what is JOY except the pleasure of the soul?
~Ashley
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