A Review of Little Rot

Phew.

Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is an artist whose work I firmly believe makes the world a better place. My entry point to their work was The Death of Vivek Oji that absolutely blew me away and enriched me.

I also loved Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir which reads like both a memoir and an elevated, artistic self-help book. I felt edified by it and bought m own copy so I could revisit it and engage with it underlining and highlighting thoughts to ponder and return to.

I was gagged by You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty and relished the mess and messy journey of a grieving woman bold enough to go after what she desired even if it was, and it was, hella chaotic.

I was so excited to get an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) (thanks Riverhead!) of their latest novel Little Rot and to dive in. No idea of the plot, just vibes and an abiding admiration for this free ass spirit artist having a human experience.

Little Rot is a story that requires the reader to look at the barely hidden depravity, some real and some as defined by a repressive culture, that makes up our society and culture, or specifically this fictional city in Nigeria. The plot takes place over a weekend just after a couple, Aima (who is PRESSED to get married after having moved to Nigeria from the States) and Kalu have split after many years. Kalu visits a sex party hosted by his (morally corrupt, trifling, international man of mystery) best friend since grade school Ahmed and what he sees there compels him to make a decision that diminishes him. Ola and Souraya are two sex workers who wind up in the midst of this mess and the reader is also dragged down into the mud with these characters navigating a nightmarish reality where money and might make right and compassion results in punishment.

I didn’t enjoy this book.

As I mentioned, I went into this story with no clue. I sincerely wish I had had a content warning about sexual violence in the book as it was too much.

I left the novel feeling dirty and questioning why I felt compelled to finish it. I don’t believe that characters in a novel need to bestow moral lessons or even that everything I read needs a happy ending, but this felt like being shown the ugliness of the world for the sake of it and the plot, thin as it was, didn’t justify the actions. I might have appreciated the story more if Ola and/or Souraya were the protagonists, but that’s not the book we have. I didn’t think the story had anything interesting to say about people repressing their sexuality or religious hypocrites or gender roles or sex or so many topics that a skilled writer like Emezi is capable of in artful ways and that’s a shame.

There are beautiful sentences, because if there’s one thing Akwaeke is going to do it’s write a beautiful, descriptive sentence, but the pervasiveness ugliness of this story is what has stayed with me about this novel.