Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

6 reviews

laurareads87's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

This is a hard book to review. There are elements of this that I really liked and think were very effective, and there were other elements that didn’t work so well. 

The multi-POV structure including the POV of not only human characters but also a house was really interesting, but the lack of clarity around each perspective shift was not – having to figure out who was narrating was more irritating than anything. There are a lot of hints and allusions to various possibilities with no concrete confirmations provided, and this is really unsettling (in a good way); however, I’m left feeling at the end like there just wasn’t enough plot to make this work. Conceptually, there is a lot going on (again, in a good way) but as a horror novel, I didn’t find this particularly frightening. 

Oyeyemi’s writing is beautiful, and the whole book feels very eerie and atmospheric. I would 100% read something else by Oyeyemi even though this book didn’t really work for me. 

Content warnings: blood, body horror, injury detail, suicidal thoughts, mental illness, death, death of a parent, disordered eating, racism, xenophobia, animal cruelty 
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singalana's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It’s not a bad book - it just wasn’t for me.

White is for Witching is a book by Helen Oyeyemi. It tells the story of Miranda Silver, who, together with her twin brother and her father, lives in a house that four generations of Silver women have inhabited. The twins’ mother has died, and it causes Miranda to have a breakdown and start spiralling.

The book has four narrators - three first-person and one third-person. This makes the story a little bit hard to follow at times. Miranda’s brother Eliot, her friend Ore and the house itself are the first-person narrators. Miranda’s point of view is narrated through the third person. Not only does this make the story slightly hard to follow, but it also raises questions about which of the narrators - if any - are reliable?

The writing style of the novel is complex: on the sentence level, it’s very beautiful and evocative, but the stylistic choices can be jarring at times. As the house appears to consume Miranda, the reader starts to question which of the events are real.

The book is certainly creepy and weird, but I’ve started to question whether weird books are for me. If you’re a fan of Murakami’s Dance, Dance, Dance or Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, you might enjoy this book. 
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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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

2.75

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mel_j's review against another edition

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

3.25

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ivy123's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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

4.25

This book is like nothing I have ever read I am not sure how to talk about it. The writing style takes awhile to get used to and in a way I dont think I ever did get used to it. It is told from multiple perspectives all leading up to the disappearance of the main character Miranda but sometimes you do not even know it has switched perspectives till something about how the person is talking clicks. The writing is also very lyrical, haunting and at times dreamlike which can make I interpretation challenging at times. 
I loved the intergenerational links between the women in the family and the perspective from the house itself was an interesting twist. There were actually parts in the story that creeped me out as well and for someone who struggles to get that scared feeling from books this story provided. I love me a female female romance and that was also delivered by the book. Theres also some interesting points on racism both overt and subtle woven throughout the story which gave another layer to the story. 
However despite the premise I found there was not really much of a plot but that didnt actually both me that much. In fact it seemed there were lots of things in here that would usually put me off no happy or conclusive ending, hard to read writing style, not much happening etc but somehow I found myself enjoying it for what it was and not being too bothered by it which made this so very hard to rate. Definetly keen to give her other works a go. 
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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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