ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
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?”
TITLE—BOY, SNOW, BIRD
AUTHOR—Helen Oyeyemi
PUBLISHED—2014
PUBLISHER—Picador
GENRE—literary fiction
SETTING—New England mid-20th c.
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—women’s agency in mid-20th c. u.s., lower middle class life, mirrors & perception, patriarchal, classist, racial & sociocultural oppression—i.e. capitalism, slow burn plot, family secrets, passing & colorism, civil rights movement, jim crow & segregation, chosen family vibes, the purpose we give our lives, self-love (nature) vs self-loathing (“nurture”), sociocultural conditioning, dual+ perspectives (two different MC narrators), spiders & tricksters, sisterhood, access to certain cultural & academic spaces, experience as knowledge, prejudice & bias, some epistolary narrative, precocious child character, unreliable narrator, cycles of violence & trauma, the enormous gray area between good & evil in humans, DID (dissociative identity disorder), forgiveness & redemption
“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.”
Summary:
“The Whitman family has been harbouring a secret in Flax Hill for three generations. When Boy brings Bird into their lives, suddenly that secret is out in the wintery New England light. Written with heart-rending vibrancy and eerie beauty, BOY, SNOW, BIRD is a sinuous story in which a mirror never shows all there is to see…”
“You should only read Oyeyemi if you’re ready to start a lifetime relationship with a writer of gorgeous, gymnastic, fairy tale-infused fiction’ — backcover blurb from Flavorwire
My thoughts:
Oh wow. I know that it seems like pretty much whichever of Oyeyemi’s books I’ve read the most recently is my favorite at any given time but I think this one might actually be my favorite.
This is my second reading and I definitely picked up on a lottt of things this time around that I had missed or misunderstood initially and that helped me to better appreciate and understand what Oyeyemi is doing with the themes of identity, passing, perception, prejudice, trauma, sociocultural conditioning, and personal agency in this novel.
This is also one of her faster-paced novels I would argue. It’s extremely compelling and I really struggled to put it down at times. She gets into some really dark themes and the characters stand on some pretty precarious edges—every one of them at one point or another does something that could very easily be considered to be “irredeemable” and “unforgivable” to the point where at times you think you’re looking at a book full of villains but in the next moment the image seems more glowy and tender—like looking into a warped, clouded mirror. The use of the unreliable narrator device is also used to very (too? 😅) subtle effect to make the reader question how much of the character’s perspective is informing what information the reader acquires and the judgments they make about what is happening in the book.
A small note: This book is about how (cycles of/inherited) trauma can inform a person’s identity, exploring specifically the Black characters who are passing as white (and the effect that has on their relationship with not only themselves but with their family members and community as well) and a character with DID passing as their alter. And, jsyk, the experience of a person with DID whose alters have different genders is a completely different thing from the experience of a trans person. Feel free to DM me if you want more details about this since I see that *a lot* of readers have misinterpreted this bit over the years…
I would recommend this book to readers who love a challenging read that explores dark themes and isn’t shy about making the reader uncomfortable in order for them to learn things about themselves... This book is best read with your whole brain turned on. 😅
A final note: One more thing re: that ending—I just want to also gently point out that uncritically and automatically ascribing a trans identity to a character who is not supported as being trans by any evidence in the book *other than* the character being an afab who presents/passes as masculine, is actually quite problematic in that it perpetuates common and harmful transphobic, homophobic, and misogynistic ideas and misunderstandings, and could also be considered ableist as it erases the experiences of folks with DID. So remember to read thoughtfully and think critically. 🫶🏻
“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.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Season: late fall, the book ends with some post-Thanksgiving antics
CW // graphic animal cruelty (rats), child abuse & torture (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)
Further Reading—
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, and Animal cruelty
The animal cruelty is against rats.lifesarosch's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm not sure how to feel about this book. The prose is fantastic but the ending has some really problematic tropes that it relies on and wildly veers away from the rest of the novel.
dlberglund's review
3.0
This is a tricky book to write a review on. It is layered, complex, brilliant, and frustrating. A blurb on the inside jacket both gives away too much and misleads. There were pieces of genius in here, threads of nuanced explorations of race, gender, family, parenthood, friendship, self-image, and identity. Many thoughtful questions are posed, but I didn't find many answers. For some, this is purposeful and reasonable- all questions about race, family, and identity cannot be answered in a normal sized book. Other questions left lingering, however, leave me feeling completely unsatisfied.
Boy, Snow, and Bird are all the names of female main characters in this book. Sections of the book are told from Boy and Bird's perspectives, but we only get pieces of Snow's inner self through letters and interactions with others. I didn't feel that any questions related to Snow were really resolved at the end, which disappointed me. (Is she really the fairest of them all, or just a pretty pretender?) There were many other secondary characters, some of whom were important, and some of whom flitted through as social acquaintances that showed up at parties. It was often difficult for me to keep them apart and know which ones I was supposed to really hold on to. (Who was Ted again?) Those would likely be my only critiques of this thoughtful book if the final 30 pages had been different. As written, they were perplexing and called into question the validity of the whole novel. It is hard for me to think of a novel with a more awkward, problematic,and out of nowhere ending.
Boy, Snow, and Bird are all the names of female main characters in this book. Sections of the book are told from Boy and Bird's perspectives, but we only get pieces of Snow's inner self through letters and interactions with others. I didn't feel that any questions related to Snow were really resolved at the end, which disappointed me. (Is she really the fairest of them all, or just a pretty pretender?) There were many other secondary characters, some of whom were important, and some of whom flitted through as social acquaintances that showed up at parties. It was often difficult for me to keep them apart and know which ones I was supposed to really hold on to. (Who was Ted again?) Those would likely be my only critiques of this thoughtful book if the final 30 pages had been different. As written, they were perplexing and called into question the validity of the whole novel. It is hard for me to think of a novel with a more awkward, problematic,and out of nowhere ending.
esquared's review against another edition
2.0
I was on track to give this 4 stars but then the last couple of chapters showed up and ruined the whole thing. What the fuck was that? And why?? Then it just kind of abruptly ended…I almost thought I must be missing a few pages in my copy of the book.
I absolutely loved White Is For Witching and was looking forward to reading more from Helen Oyeyemi, but this has me questioning if I’d want to read any more of her work. She writes beautifully and really pulls me in to her characters but the rat catcher ‘twist’ at the end is bizarre and just plain disrespectful to the trans community.
I absolutely loved White Is For Witching and was looking forward to reading more from Helen Oyeyemi, but this has me questioning if I’d want to read any more of her work. She writes beautifully and really pulls me in to her characters but the rat catcher ‘twist’ at the end is bizarre and just plain disrespectful to the trans community.
tomwbrass's review against another edition
3.0
Not Oyeyemi's best. Some confusing character decisions made at times. Can't you just name your main characters human names?
emdowd's review
4.0
Not the obvious Snow White redux I've seen it billed as, but I enjoyed it perhaps more. Questions of identity and appearance, plus a lot of other metaphors I'll need to think about for a long time. I'm not sure why we got mostly Boy's perspective with some of Bird's and none of Snow's.
chanelsteph's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
lmc168's review
3.0
Probably more 3.5 stars than 3. This was very strange, but I kind of liked it. I thought Boy's chapters were very odd, but I liked the ones from Bird's perspective.