Reviews

The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

thehannah's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

oshee's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

breadandmushrooms's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

nneka23's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

glitteringimages's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This starts off as a “lonely kid discovers magic” story but becomes a lot darker and genuinely frightening. The characterization is so good. The “child logic” in reaction to weird and unexplainable happenings is spot-on, the adults in her family are flawed but not villains. Very sad and cathartic. 

caitgriff's review

2.0

Really fucking freaky! I do not like horror and it’s probably on me for not looking into the genre too deeply at first but seriously, fuck me up. It takes a while to get into the disjointed headspace and narrative style of Jess, but once you catch the cadence, the writing style is very fluid and easy to follow.

erboe501's review

4.0

Another book that I'm considering for my dissertation. I really enjoyed Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird and her short story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. This book, her first, has the same magical realism element. Sort of.

The crucial question in The Icarus Girl is whether or not Jess's friend TillyTilly is real or not. Is she an alter ego, a mythical creature, or some magical child? This relates to my dissertation topic because there's a tension in the book between medical explanations (alter ego/mental disorder), non-Western explanations (Nigerian folklore), and something in between. Another element that heightens the tension is Jess's half-white, half-Nigerian heritage. She's torn between many worlds.

At the end of the novel it's hard to tell what was real and what was not so real. But perhaps that should be a lesson in finding peace with non-medical, non-Western, non-rational explanations for deviations from our expectations of the normal.

august_ambrosia's review

didn't compel me :( also i can't really handle scary things. this was a bit scary/creepy

benoliver's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

jillaay_h's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders