Scan barcode
kathleendayle's review against another edition
- 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
1.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Racism, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Rape
lynssss's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Hate crime, and Mental illness
Minor: Rape and Lesbophobia
valent1ne's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Racism and Transphobia
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Rape
msradiosilence's review against another edition
0.25
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Racism
Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcoholism
Minor: Pregnancy and Rape
btaylorb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The resolution if you can call it that is unsatisfying, even deeply problematic, following a meandering plot. My favorite part was Bird’s section, which I wish had been longer and given more space for the relationship between Bird and Snow to develop and lead to more of a climactic confrontation with their mother. There are also plot and character details that are SO subtextual the first time they come up that when they are named outright later on they left me wondering if I had missed something.
The prose in this book is beautiful, wry and observant and successful at the mythic/magical realism balance of making the unusual seem normal and necessary. But the detail of not showing up in mirrors as a red herring annoyed me! Why focus on breaking the “spell” on Boy’s father in the end rather than exploring what that shared experience means for Boy, Snow and Bird, how that functions as its own kind of spell? IDK. I’m cautiously eager read other books by Oyeyemi because the writing style is so good, I just hope the plotting gets more thoughtful.
Moderate: Racism, Child abuse, and Classism
Minor: Transphobia and Rape
ceallaighsbooks's review
- 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
5.0
“I was only asking like that because I don't always show up in mirrors, either. For years I wondered whether it's all right or not, but there's been no one to ask, so I've decided that I feel all right about it. It's a relief to be able to forget about what I might or might not be mistaken for. My reflection can't be counted on, she's not always there but I am, so maybe she's not really me… I think that maybe mirrors behave differently depending on how you treat them. Treating them like clocks (as almost everybody seems to) makes them behave like clocks, but treating them as doors—does any of this make sense to you?”
“Mirrors see so much. They could help us if they wanted to. In those days I spoke to every mirror in the apartment. I questioned them, told them I didn't know what to do, but none of them answered me. The girl in the glass exaggerated my expression, her gaze zigzagging as though watching a waterfall. She was making fun of me for sure, but I decided not to take it personally.”
“First, I'm with Bird in any Them versus Us situation she or anyone cares to name. Second, it's not whiteness itself that sets Them against Us, but the worship of whiteness. Same goes if you swap whiteness out for other things—fancy possessions for sure, pedigree, maybe youth too . . . I'm still of two minds about that. Third, we beat Them (and spare ourselves a lot of tedium and terror) by declining to worship.”
- THE ICARUS GIRL and WHITE IS FOR WITCHING, by Helen Oyeyemi
- DARK TALES and THE BIRD’S NEST, by Shirley Jackson
- THE WOMAN WHO BORROWED MEMORIES and THE TRUE DECEIVER, by Tove Jansson
- THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett
- RECITATIF by Toni Morrison
- ALICE IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
- THE GOBLIN MARKET by Christina Rossetti
- AFRICAN AMERICAN FOLKTALES edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Maria Tartar
- BEFORE WE WERE TRANS: A NEW HISTORY OF GENDER by Kit Heyam (which includes a very nuanced discussion of gender & perception)
- LUCY and THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER, by Jamaica Kincaid
Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, and Animal cruelty
The animal cruelty is against rats.bookishplantmom's review against another edition
- 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
0.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Racism, and Transphobia
danaran's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Transphobia, and Racism
Minor: Rape
jerichola's review against another edition
1.0
That would have been a 3 star, but the ending. Oh goodness. Even if it wasn’t incredibly disrespectful and prejudiced, it was a storyline that would need more than 20 pages to be flushed out. Within the last 20 pages the author changes this story to introduce a trans character just to insinuate that being trans is caused by insanity and trauma, that transitioning creates vile and abusive people, that it caused a curse on the next two generations, and that curse can only be broken by de-transitioning. It felt like she wrote an entire book and her editor said, “you know what it’s missing? Transphobia.” so she just haphazardly slammed it in in the last 3 chapters. I’m so disappointed.
My recent read of “The Ways of White Folks” by Langston Hughes gave me a much better look at the racial topics presented in this story, and I felt more emotionally connected to those characters in 20 pages than I did in the 300+ with these characters. I wish this one would have stayed unread on my bookshelf.
Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Child abuse, and Deadnaming
Minor: Body shaming
rivalmancy's review against another edition
Graphic: Racism, Child abuse, and Transphobia
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape