When I was offered this widget by the publisher, I fell for the cover.. but I definitely learned my lesson with that. This book did not work for me. People do not really act like this, and if they do, I do not know these people or don’t want to.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4.5-5 stars

I was thoroughly engaged in the story of Feyi and her tumultuous journey to find love. Emezi's writing is truly a highlight of the book, with vivid and passionate prose that immerses the reader in the world of the story. The characters are rich and the story compelling, with Feyi making a series of choices that are both captivating and, at times, cringeworthy.

One of the things I appreciated most about this book was its raw representation of reality. Emezi does an excellent job of exploring the messy, complicated nature of love and relationships, and the result is a deeply heartfelt romance novel that is strongly resonated with me. However, I did have some issues with the ending. It seemed as though Emezi was attempting to wrap things up neatly, but I couldn't help feeling that the consequences of certain actions should have been more far-reaching.

Overall, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is an engaging and emotional read that I would recommend to anyone looking for a thought-provoking and complicated love story.

Note: this review was written by me but modified by the openAI chatbot to improve it.

I ended up adoring this story of grief and finding love again from Akwaeke Emezi. This is a must read for those who love love in all of its complexity.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
rating: 4⭐️
genre: contemporary fiction
read this if you liked:

I’m not typically one to judge a book by its cover, but damn if this cover is not SO GOOD! I purchased this book based on the cover alone and went into this one mostly blind. I’m really glad I did because it was so nice for the story to unfold for me without knowing what was to come. What a wild, steamy ride it was! This book gripped me from the very start and didn’t let up until the end. The tension in the book heated up quickly and made for a fun, steamy summer read. I enjoyed that this book wasn’t simply a romance book but also had themes of love, grief, finding yourself, and friendship as well. It was equally as thought provoking. Feyi was such a fantastically written main character and I loved seeing her growth throughout the book. This author quickly got added to my *auto buy* list!

I have some complicated feelings about this book. On one hand, you have the soul-consuming writing of Akwaeke Emezi, who until this book has usually gotten 5 stars across the board. On the other, I just completely struggled with the plot and character choices in this story. I was at times at war with myself, but ultimately, I could not get behind the romance at all.

Regardless of any struggles with the plot itself, the writing truly is superb. The characters feel real, and Emezi writes them so fully fleshed out. And I appreciate how Emezi pulls out the complex feelings of love and grief and sadness that definitely resonated. The problem is that I could not get behind the dubious family dynamics at the center of the romance, it just did not make me feel good! And I need my romance to make me fully root for both of the characters, and I could not do that here.

I will absolutely continue reading anything Emezi puts out, but this one did not fully grab me.

I wasn't crazy about this novel about a May-December romance between a young woman and her boyfriend's father. Rather than the deep romance described by the central character, their relationship seemed to me another example of a successful older man preying on the vulnerability of a beautiful young woman.

I'm trying to figure out where to begin with this one. Okay…here goes! After 5 years of mourning, and at the insistence of her best friend/roommate/?, Feyi decided to stay socializing. I don't think anyone was prepared for that opening scene! Did anyone else catch that Milan was at the party with his girlfriend? Then, there's his friend Nasir, who I think was genuinely catching feelings for her, but while she's "figuring it out" and talking it slow, Feyi is now attracted to his father, of all people.

The main character, Feyi was depicted as Miss Loose Booty, and I'm not sure if she was using sex as a mask to cover up her Survivor's Remorse or her actual mourning. And another thing…we never found out who was actually driving the car, which would somewhat explain why she never drove after the accident. Somehow, I felt like something was missing.

Once Nasir and Feyi get to the island, I was enthralled by the cuisine, which gave me a taste of my Caribbean roots. Alim, is a layered character, but this is where it gets interesting. I believe he is the most transparent character in this book. You take him or you leave him, which leads to another thing. Was it just me, or was everybody bi-sexual in this book?

In conclusion, this book lacked the developmental editing that it needed. The readers should not have been left many open-ended questions. I do recommend that you read it for yourself, because it definitely has potential.

This is a very good book with some very big problems. I love how it pushes the romance genre to stretch and include types of romance, characters, and the personal histories of characters that it normally doesn't. Many people read romance because of its predictability, and therefore safety, and they're not going to be happy with this book, because it doesn't fit the norms of the genre. And I think that's good, in that the stretching of the definition of romance to include others will ultimately strengthen and expand the genre. Inclusion is good.

That being said, and even though the book had me nearly to tears in the first chapter, there are some serious plot and character development issues that have been covered extensively in other reviews, which kept me from enjoying the book as much as I hoped.

So, I ended up listening to this on audio and I just have to say that the narrator was amazing. I will return an audiobook and read it physically if I don't vibe with the audiobook narrator, but this narrator was great and I would absolutely listen to their other books!
Anyways, I enjoyed this so so much more than I was expecting. Honestly, I don't love the cover or the title and I think that's why I put off reading it for so long. I don't even think that I fully realized that it was romance at first. From the blurb and the title, I was thinking that it was going to be literary but it was definitely a romance. It's messy and spicy and aside from the main character's trauma from losing her husband, it's really not that deep either in my opinion. I especially loved the main character and her best friend's relationship and could've probably read a whole book about just them two! I loved all of it. It was exactly what I was in the mood for although upon reading some poor reviews I do understand where people are coming from. Even so, as I said, this was totally for me.

With that said, I was really disappointed to see that someone wrote a poor review about this book and the author somehow took it out of context and aired them out on Twitter. I find this really unprofessional. I was looking for the tweet and wasn't able to find it but I did find a thread of tweets from the author about this book where they say about people who don't like the characters... "FOOL OF DEATH features a metric fuckton of profanity, and queer Black girls fucking their way through Brooklyn. They do not give a fuck about getting or keeping a man, so if you’re a pick me who loves respectability politics, you might be offended by these characters." Calling people who don't jive with your book for whatever reason "pick-me"s is so crazy to me. And rude. For that reason, I'll be staying away from this author in the future.

Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with this book. Try as I did, the characters didn't pull me into the story as I hoped they would.

A sexy, passionate, beautiful, romantic, messy, hot, entertaining and interesting read!

A huge thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster publishing, for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

WOW this book, just WOW. This book is about a young woman who has a second chance at love, after the tragic death of her husband, with someone who's off limits.

Romance is not my favorite genre but I loved this book and the romance in it. The age gap was, chef's kiss!

I am screaming, crying, shaking and throwing up at the fact that I don't have such a passionate romance like Feyi and Alim (mess included cause life ain't fun unless it's messy!) I was here for the mess, because like Jonah said in the book about mess being beautiful.... Feyi and Alim's relationship was beautiful! I loved how Feyi had to slowly come to terms with her grief, pain and loneliness. How she had to be brave and alive to find love.

This book was too short, like you don't understand, i could and would love to read a whole series about Feyim? (Feyi and Alim).

Akwaeke Emezi has a beautiful talent! They are talented DOWN. I wish I could write an inch of how tender and beautiful they write....

Believe the hype about this book! And yes it is that good. I ran out to get a physical copy because I know I needed this book on my shelves. So that I could reread and reread this book until I know every word on every page.

I will definitely be reading Freshwater soon (I have a physical copy on my shelves at home) and so much more from them, both past works and future!

This was a story about grief and love. As someone who mostly reads YA I was expecting to be scandalized but it wasn't nearly as messy or spicy as Booktok claimed! It was excellent though because Emezi wrote it and everything they write is excellent.

This book was poetic but I could not get into the storyline. I’m a tough sell for romance as it is, and I felt a visceral reaction to the familial dynamics at play. I know plenty of people who loved this, but sadly it was not for me. Will try more of rhe author’s work for sure though.

“𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦… 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦.”

I appreciated everything about the new perspective that Emezi brought to us with this unique, messy, and excitingly nontraditional love story. Their novel speaks to reopening yourself to new people and new experiences after a great, all-encompassing loss. It’s about finding—and being drawn to—the people who understand you to your core. Emezi’s writing is wonderfully compelling and quite raunchy as we follow Feyi’s journey to “learn how to be alive again.” The character’s were flawed, vulnerable, real and amazingly unapologetic. As a final thought, let the record state that the superlative for “best relationship” in this novel goes to besties Feyi and Joy. Agreed??

I read this book back in the spring and it is the first of many reviews that I’m attempting to catch up with after my summer hiatus. Just writing this review is making me want to read it all over again—so if you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy asap!!

“𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘵, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.”

Thank you to @netgalley, @atriabooks, and @simonandschuster for the eARC copy of this book.

Once again, Akwaeke Emezi can do no wrong, regardless of the genre they choose. To say this is a romance is too simple, yet it is. Just know it is so much more than that, and you will be thinking about the story and its characters long after you finish the book.

I usually love this author and their writing, but this was a difficult read and it did not draw me in like all the author's other work.

i appreciate a messy character, and this definitely delivered, though i don't think this was strictly everything i wanted from the book?

Vibrant and descriptive writing, that eventually feels a little self-indulgent, especially as the romance doesn't move much deeper than its initial insta-love. (And also, I love the cover and the Florence and the Machine title.)

I really wanted to like this one, but it just wasn't for me. I know others will like it though, I just couldn't get into it.

Well-written, excellent banter and a swoony tropical setting made this book hard to put down. I wish I were cool enough to be friends with Feyi and Joy - I couldn't get enough of their fun and honest friendship. Feyi was the definition of a strong female lead, and I admired the way Emezi wove in topics of mental health and trauma.

The main romance in the novel had somewhat of an ick factor (19 year age difference), but it was depicted in a way that made it palatable and I was rooting for the couple to make it by the end. This book was original, had amazing characters, and was just an enjoyable (and sometimes steamy) read.