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1.07k reviews for:
Krótka historia Stowarzyszenia Nieurodziwych Dziewuch i inne opowiadania
Helen Oyeyemi
3.76 AVERAGE
1.07k reviews for:
Krótka historia Stowarzyszenia Nieurodziwych Dziewuch i inne opowiadania
Helen Oyeyemi
3.76 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"'Where do you see yourself in ten years' time?' she asked.
My answer: 'Not sure, but maybe on a beach reading a really good mystery. Not a murder mystery, but the kind where the narrator has to find out what year it is and why he was even born...'
Would I have answered differently if I'd known Mum intended this to be a proper talk about my future? Probably not."
My answer: 'Not sure, but maybe on a beach reading a really good mystery. Not a murder mystery, but the kind where the narrator has to find out what year it is and why he was even born...'
Would I have answered differently if I'd known Mum intended this to be a proper talk about my future? Probably not."
Okay, this book might just not be for me - I liked the writing, there were quite a few very beautiful passages in this book. If anything it was pretty to read.
That being said I feel like a lot just went right over my head and I didn't understand really what was going on sometimes.
That being said I feel like a lot just went right over my head and I didn't understand really what was going on sometimes.
This might be the best collection of short stories I've ever read. Oyeyemi has crafted an interwoven set of tales of magical realism, full of keys, locked doors, hidden libraries, secrets and emotions. Nearly every story's protagonist is a queer person of color, and many of the characters appear in multiple stories. In "Sorry Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea", a man helps his boyfriend with the tumultuous task of parenting two teenage daughters, Dayang and Aisha. This story mostly focuses on Aisha's heartbreak when her musical idol commits a terrible crime. She appears in a later story, grown up, as an idol herself. One of my favorites stories, "A Brief History of the Homely Wench Society", follows Dayang during part of her first year at Cambridge. She is invited to join the Homely Wenches, a feminist literary club first founded in opposition to an exclusive male Cambridge student society. When one of the Homely Wench members discovers the key to the rival club's house, naturally they decide to plan a midnight raid on it's library.
This gorgeously undulating collection of stories sits somewhere on the edges of this world, where magic exists unquestioned and unexplained, lurking horrors softened by the veil between reality and fantasy and always overcome - just like the old fairytales. These could even be new fairytales, for all that they disregard the tropes of Masculine and Feminine segregated into clearly defined roles. There is even a retelling, of sorts, of Little Red Riding Hood - though the wolf is not a wolf and Red is not a young girl.
But these aren't fairytales or fables or short stories only - they slip and twist about, defying categorisation. A pleasant little story about a highschool crush turns into a whimsical tale of puppetry, though sinister suggestions of control and power are always beneath the surface. Beneath other surfaces: lovers in a drowned city smile up at the survivors on land; a beloved artist hides a temperament that will change the lives of his lovers; an aloof woman holds another world in the pages of a book. Each story is very different, though a few characters make appearances here and there. Each story is utterly captivating.
Keys are, ostensibly, the link between each story - but I found books to be just as much of a recurring theme and the stories are even lovelier for it. Oyeyemi has somehow managed to capture the distinction between darkness that consumes and darkness that heals, and I can't wait to read more of her work!
But these aren't fairytales or fables or short stories only - they slip and twist about, defying categorisation. A pleasant little story about a highschool crush turns into a whimsical tale of puppetry, though sinister suggestions of control and power are always beneath the surface. Beneath other surfaces: lovers in a drowned city smile up at the survivors on land; a beloved artist hides a temperament that will change the lives of his lovers; an aloof woman holds another world in the pages of a book. Each story is very different, though a few characters make appearances here and there. Each story is utterly captivating.
Keys are, ostensibly, the link between each story - but I found books to be just as much of a recurring theme and the stories are even lovelier for it. Oyeyemi has somehow managed to capture the distinction between darkness that consumes and darkness that heals, and I can't wait to read more of her work!
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Quite simply not my cup of tea - I read it for a friend, otherwise I would've given up on the first page. If you don't like a very dreamy, surreal, magical realist writing style, this book is not for you. It also is magical realism, which I'm not generally crazy about, but it's the writing style that really got me. Here's a sample of what the entire book sounded like to me:
"A name you haven't heard yet did a strange and shocking-sounding thing. Well, not really; it was more that they did this more broad and still yet stranger thing, in pursuit of something else incredibly strange. The character had a backstory leading up to the strange thing, which is gone into some more detail here. Other characters also exist in this character's life, though you may or may not meet them depending on how this story goes, which is entirely out of your control."
In terms of the plot, I quite liked the open-endedness of each story... but only when I expected most of it to come to some sort of conclusion at the end of the book. One little piece sort of did (we learn that two characters get together), but it really left more questions than answers, and not in a fun way. I wasn't very invested to begin with, so I didn't really care, but I at least would've been entertained if there was a little more narrative.
"A name you haven't heard yet did a strange and shocking-sounding thing. Well, not really; it was more that they did this more broad and still yet stranger thing, in pursuit of something else incredibly strange. The character had a backstory leading up to the strange thing, which is gone into some more detail here. Other characters also exist in this character's life, though you may or may not meet them depending on how this story goes, which is entirely out of your control."
In terms of the plot, I quite liked the open-endedness of each story... but only when I expected most of it to come to some sort of conclusion at the end of the book. One little piece sort of did (we learn that two characters get together), but it really left more questions than answers, and not in a fun way. I wasn't very invested to begin with, so I didn't really care, but I at least would've been entertained if there was a little more narrative.
3.5 stars
This book was definitely weird but I didn’t hate it!
Read did school
This book was definitely weird but I didn’t hate it!
Read did school
books and roses:
one of the things i had trouble with in [b:Boy, Snow, Bird|18079683|Boy, Snow, Bird|Helen Oyeyemi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391384454s/18079683.jpg|25386975] was that at times the writing could get confusing. i think that's typical to magical realism in general, which purposefully changes things and twists the fabric of reality in confusing ways. so, at first i had trouble following this story, although i pretty much got the hang of it by the end. i liked this one! didn't see the twist coming, because i never see twists coming, but it was clever and artfully done. oyeyemi's writing is beautiful as well. basically this one is about a girl who was left as child with a key around her neck, and she meets a woman who also has a mysterious key around her neck. their lives intertwine in an intriguing but disturbing way.
"sorry" doesn't sweeten her tea:
like the first story, this one is kind of a story within a story. most short stories feel contained. they follow the same people; there is not too much movement in setting. maybe because these stories are longer, oyeyemi gracefully switches things up, ending up somewhere completely different from where we started. we begin with this guy who is looking after his friend's house while he away and works at a weight loss clinic, but then we follow the story of a musician his stepdaughters are obsessed with. the musician commits a strange and violent crime, which i wasn't sure what to make of. i didn't get where she was going with this story. it feels like a somewhat overwrought critique of fame culture, but that also doesn't seem like the main point. each story is filled with so many details are strange and creepy, and could be mined further, but she keeps it moving and adds something else. also has a sort of twist and a strange ending.
ok i kind of gave up writing about each story individually, but in short, it was all great, and i enjoyed it more the more i read. u go helen.
favorite stories:
books and roses
a brief history of the homely wench society
dornicka and the st. martin's day goose
one of the things i had trouble with in [b:Boy, Snow, Bird|18079683|Boy, Snow, Bird|Helen Oyeyemi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391384454s/18079683.jpg|25386975] was that at times the writing could get confusing. i think that's typical to magical realism in general, which purposefully changes things and twists the fabric of reality in confusing ways. so, at first i had trouble following this story, although i pretty much got the hang of it by the end. i liked this one! didn't see the twist coming, because i never see twists coming, but it was clever and artfully done. oyeyemi's writing is beautiful as well. basically this one is about a girl who was left as child with a key around her neck, and she meets a woman who also has a mysterious key around her neck. their lives intertwine in an intriguing but disturbing way.
"sorry" doesn't sweeten her tea:
like the first story, this one is kind of a story within a story. most short stories feel contained. they follow the same people; there is not too much movement in setting. maybe because these stories are longer, oyeyemi gracefully switches things up, ending up somewhere completely different from where we started. we begin with this guy who is looking after his friend's house while he away and works at a weight loss clinic, but then we follow the story of a musician his stepdaughters are obsessed with. the musician commits a strange and violent crime, which i wasn't sure what to make of. i didn't get where she was going with this story. it feels like a somewhat overwrought critique of fame culture, but that also doesn't seem like the main point. each story is filled with so many details are strange and creepy, and could be mined further, but she keeps it moving and adds something else. also has a sort of twist and a strange ending.
ok i kind of gave up writing about each story individually, but in short, it was all great, and i enjoyed it more the more i read. u go helen.
favorite stories:
books and roses
a brief history of the homely wench society
dornicka and the st. martin's day goose
These were like exceptionally coherent dreams, which is to say I still didn't always understand what was going on.
I greatly enjoyed "Is Your Blood as Red as This", "Sorry Doesnt Sweeten her Tea", "If A Book is Locked Theres Probably a Good Reason for That Dont You Think", and "A Brief History of the Homley Wench Society". "Presence" and "Drownings" were interesting enough that it makes up for much I didn't care for "Books and Roses" and the one about Freddy so overall this rounds out to a 4/5.