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A review by jerichola
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
1.0
While a tolerable book, it was slightly confusing with the jumping between timelines and narrators between parts. I never felt like I had a great handle on the characters or their motives or emotions. The premise sounds like it would pack a punch, the execution fell flat and I had no emotional attachment to the characters. However, there were quite a few beautiful quotes.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Child abuse, and Deadnaming
Minor: Body shaming