So yes, Feyi does sort of hop from man to man but she’s given morals and decentness and panic about falling for someone’s dad when she’s already messed around. Then her life changes when she’s offered an opportunity to exhibit her art in a big show in the Caribbean, goes there with Second Guy, determined to be her friend and not rush her, and meets his dad. She soon moves away from the friends-with-benefits gig with this guy and on to another person from his friendship group. It is fairly explicit, and you might wonder why I’m OK with that in this book and not the last read I can only say that the scenes are shorter here and seem to fit better with the urban and grittier vibe of the book (I’m not using “urban” as code for Black here, please note the book is set partly among young artists and party-goers in New York rather than nice dog ladies in the South of France and the context does make a difference). We meet Feyi having an anonymous hook-up at a party in New York, and she does at one point think of the car crash that killed her husband five years ago, but it’s not some kind of “Crash” mash-up of sex and death or anything. ‘Four thirty,’ she replied, with a damned smile and a traitorous chill burning through her veins. And, because Feyi was Feyi and she was alive, there was no way she could say no. There was a reason she’d fled from the garden that night, and a certainty that going on an early morning hike alone with this man was terrible idea. With the impression that the opening scene was an offputting mix of sex and death and the central character a transgressive artist who worked in fairly grim media, I picked it up to check for myself before writing a quick note about why I hadn’t read it, and was instead drawn in by the rapid plot development, attractive characters and good writing.Įmezi has published two works of more literary style fiction before this and warns their readers that this is a “romance” however, it ponders a lot of deep things and although it is at heart a novel about millennials finding their place in the world, it’s thoughtful and considered.Īkwaeke Emezi – “You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty”

I’m really glad that I tried this book for myself and wasn’t put off by other reviews I read.

You made a fool of me with your beauty