A review by lavrendy
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi

2.0

If adults were still assigned reading levels, this book would be above mine.

I was excited to try out Oyeyemi’s work after reading her afterword for Don’t Look at Me Like That by Diana Athill. Athill’s writing was straightforward and pleasant, and I had guessed that Oyememi’s style would be similar. Instead, I was thrown into a chaotic jumble of endlessly multiplying characters, plot points, and metaphors. It was all way too much for me to process via audio.

This type of confusion was tiring because it all made sense at the sentence-level, but when I tried to figure out what was going on or why we were getting into it, I could never connect the dots. It was like a dream where you hop from one scene to the next without any cohesive transitions.

If I had known beforehand that her world was somewhat closer to Ali Smith’s or Clarice Lispector’s, I definitely would have gone in with a physical copy and a more open mind. Should’ve done my research but I’m not sure that I’d love this book even under different circumstances. I finished it because I’ve conditioned myself to only be productive if I’m listening to something at all times lol