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4.6 out of 5

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Laura Hession

Powerful, Fragile, Vivid,

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2023

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This memoir is about sexuality, transformation and writing. It’s fabulous and haunting language inhabits a voice that is sometimes strong, and sometimes damaged severely. Bare naked honesty holds it together, the life of the body, the mind and the spirit of the author

Amazon Customer

I Adored This Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2021

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I had a different beginning to this review. I started with uncertainty, a familiar place. It is easier to start with uncertainty because it keeps people uncomfortable. Once I say, I don’t know at least once, my threat is removed. I am less intimidating, less brilliant. By chance, I deleted the beginning so that I was left with the bulk I do know. I know this book was written for me. Not specifically for me because I barely know Akwaeke, but rather written for the person that knows they have power but that is also aware that acknowledging such power might actually bring as much harm as it does glory. I adored Dear Senthuran because I want to be glorious, brilliant and beautiful in unprecedented ways.

Akwaeke talks about how clear the message is, the message to do the work, the message to live fully and entirely. It is a hard message to heed because living life the way I know I’m supposed to live it means making even more sacrifices than I have already made. It’s humbling to realize that this won’t end until it ends but I am glad I’m not alone. That there are people in this world that see it in ways I see it too and that they are shining, burning bright, blinding even. I want to blind the world with my light, but I’ll have to be unrecognizable; I will have to believe that I am indeed deserving of the life I have always longed for.

Since this is a review and not a diary entry, I’ll return to the book. I guess it is a memoir in technical terms, but it seems to be more of a reminder. When one is committed to living each day as a new day unconnected from the last, one needs reminders. Reminders of where one used to be. Reminders of how badly one longed for the life one currently has. Reminders that there still so much to be done. It is a memoir in the same way the Bible is a collection of tales. Both recognize that this short life is also long and that to survive, one needs to fight battles against opponents that seem more skilled in their violence.

Stories like Akwaeke’s are like the messages tied to the leg of a dove (or any bird that can carry shit). It is like when there was a flood and they where looking for dry land. Dear Senthuran says Canaan is possible but the work is inevitable and the sacrifice is tremendous. It is easy to romanticize the journey through a harsh desert when the people have arrived, but what happens when the journey is still in process. What happens when we realize that the place we thought was Canaan was actually a pit stop, an oasis, a moment of rest before continuing on. We are all on journeys and I think one thing that I always need to hear, always need to read is that this journey won’t end until it ends and when it ends, I probably won’t know it. And that is fine. We will make sure that are movements on this earth are as saturated with life as humanly possible.

Read this book and come to your own conclusions. I am not here to tell you to buy or not buy it. I’ve done my own work. I will continue doing my own work. Bet on yourself and do yours. May the Lord in their infinite mercy be with you.

Love, V.

Jessica Spencer GSU MBA

It’s so good

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2021

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Just finished this non fiction one! They tell their life in letters!What stuck out to me was the conversations around body dysmorphia as it relates to depression and the idea of carving up a new outside and that lifting depression a bit. It’s a long book and lots of stuff in besides the letters on their operation, the their family’s reaction, their body’s reactions to the post opt meds… lots of other stuff besides all that. It’s so good!

Mary F.

The ideas spoke to the deepest part of me.

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2021

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Life-changing. Deeply grateful for the depths Akwaeke Emezi is willing to explore. “It doesn’t matter if you think the goals are attainable. They are. What matters is that the goals are impossible without the work.”

Stephen T. Hopkins

Letters

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi’s book titled, Dear Senthuran, is a memoir in letters. Their prose matches the voice readers have come to appreciate in fiction. The expression to family, friends and lovers exposes an inner life and an outer manifestation that contains great depth, complexity, and life-changing decisions. We may not understand their life, but we learn about it through finely written prose and heartfelt engagement with the world. Their storytelling, intelligence, and candor will keep readers entranced by a voice that roars.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

kathleen g

terrific

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

Emezi's letters to a range of people create a layered portrait of a human who has dealt with challenges and come out stronger on the other side. The letters are not in a straight time line, which allows Emezi's portrait to emerge in a lush fashion. It's hard to review memoirs because it feels as those you are judging the author or the author's life choices. That's not the case here. This lays bare Emezi's life. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. It's an unusual sort of memoir and a very valuable read.

Reviewer

Sociopath writes a memoir

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2021

An unrepentant narcissist/sociopath rants for a few hundred pages about how they're better than everyone, are a god, deserve to be worshipped (although no one worships them the right way), how they're always 100% right and 100% the victim in every situation. They say multiple times that what they want more than anything is the opportunity to commit murder without consequences- because the idea of taking a life excites them. There is lots of gory detail about how they would go through with this murder.

Top reviews from other countries

A Leonie

Prepare to be devastated and destroyed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2022

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Not read anything like this in forever, and i'm so in awe. Literally became my favourite author of this decade.

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