Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

20 reviews

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad fast-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

4.75

I love this strange little idiosyncratic neo-gothic horror novel about generational trauma and racism.

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carolinestes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

White is for Witching is a book I started for class, put down, picked back up in a panic the week before my exam, and then was engulfed by. It is eerie and deep and confusing and meaningful. This is not a pleasant, good vibes book this is a book that forces you to see the ugliness in the world and in our history.
Miranda is a white British girl haunted by three generations of racist female ancestors along with the house they all lived in. Miranda’s story shows how white people, specifically white women, can never escape the horrors of our colonial, racist ancestors. No matter Miranda’s love for her Nigerian-British girlfriend, she will always hold that evil white female history within her.
This book amazed me. I have so so many thoughts on it that could never fit into a single post. 

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officialmcnugget's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-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

4.5


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headachesince03's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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readsbykats's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5


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savvylit's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I loved a lot of aspects of this story. It's a gothic haunted house tale with loads of magical realism and critical social commentary. It has multiple POVs and one of them is the house itself. Not to mention that some of the sentences that Oyeyemi has crafted are truly exquisite.

But overall I felt like Oyeyemi was creatively overextending herself in this story. Too many issues were addressed but not thoroughly explored. Too many creepy things hinted at but not quite revealed. I wished that the novel had been a little more polished.

The story overall was a very bleak slice of life, primarily focusing on Miranda. Which is unfortunate because I didn't like Miranda. Miranda is a bit of a two-dimensional cliche of a mentally ill young woman. Also, I really loved that one of the narrators was the house, but I didn't feel like we heard enough from their perspective.

Ultimately, I had a lot of questions throughout the story that I felt were never answered. And not in a good, ambiguous ending way. More like a "why did the thread of this story get dropped so quickly" kinda way. All of our narrators are unreliable but the true story is never really revealed.

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madarauchiha's review against another edition

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slow-paced
 ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜  my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️

I'll be honest. I don't think gothic genre is for me. I can tell this is excellently written, but I'm not at all hooked or interested in it. I'll finish reading it though.

Ok I finished. Spiritually I checked out at the 47 percent mark so I'm not sure what happened. Things. Things happened, in a very dreamy manner. Welp. No rating, personally.

Content warnings:
Minor: blood, nazism, ww1, antiblack racist caricature, sexual content, emetophobia / vomit, rape, sexual violence, unsanitary, beastiality, sexual content, drugs weed, Adolf hitler mention , 

Medium: psychiatric institutions, gore, self harm, xenophobia, murder, suicide, anti immigration rhetoric, prison abuse, blood, alcohol use, smoking tobacco, mass shooting, parental death, gun violence 

Major: eating disorders, mental illness, lesbophobic d slur, violence, sexual content, violence, 

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falcc's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Firstly I should say that while I did not enjoy this book, the author is clearly a talented writer and I don't want to discourage anyone from her other work. However, White is for Witching is a slog.

The characters in this book - apart from Ore and Sade, who are genuinely great and trying their best - are extremely unpleasant people that it's hard to spend time with. The story drags on until the Ore portions in the second half of the book, and that story is about gradually degrading any sympathy you might initially have for the other characters. Most of the real plot happens in the last 50 pages or so and feels both rushed and unfinished. I spent large portions of my reading experience just inwardly shouting for characters to TALK TO EACH OTHER about what they're feeling and left disappointed and frustrated.

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lizsmartie13's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Helen Oyeyemi is a fascinating writer. I don’t know that I fully “get” this book, and it was so slow going at first I wasn’t sure what would keep me going, but once Miranda got to Cambridge I was extremely invested. The “haunted house” (and I use big quotes there because that’s such a simplification of what is going on) was so terrifying and thrilling.

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gwynsvan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


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