Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

23 reviews

maregred's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Racism, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Stalking and War

aisabel's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• 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

3.25

Beautiful prose, confusing plot. Very unsatisfying ending, but I might still reread it to better appreciate it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Incest, Racism, and Suicide attempt

antimony's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

three point five. the writing was really good but gah i was so so confused. i don't think i ever fully knew what was going on. it took me so long to get into the swing of the changing povs and then as soon as i had we got ore's and i was confused again. the end was good as well, though the lack of a plot up until ore got introduced left me feeling very stagnant for most of the book. i don't think that the jacket summary adequately conveys much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Racism, Suicide, and Xenophobia

kattyenn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood and Cannibalism

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-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

4.75

I love this strange little idiosyncratic neo-gothic horror novel about generational trauma and racism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Racism, and Xenophobia

carolinestes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

White is for Witching is a book I started for class, put down, picked back up in a panic the week before my exam, and then was engulfed by. It is eerie and deep and confusing and meaningful. This is not a pleasant, good vibes book this is a book that forces you to see the ugliness in the world and in our history.
Miranda is a white British girl haunted by three generations of racist female ancestors along with the house they all lived in. Miranda’s story shows how white people, specifically white women, can never escape the horrors of our colonial, racist ancestors. No matter Miranda’s love for her Nigerian-British girlfriend, she will always hold that evil white female history within her.
This book amazed me. I have so so many thoughts on it that could never fit into a single post. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Xenophobia

officialmcnugget's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

headachesince03's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Gore, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, and War

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Xenophobia, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

readsbykats's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

savvylit's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I loved a lot of aspects of this story. It's a gothic haunted house tale with loads of magical realism and critical social commentary. It has multiple POVs and one of them is the house itself. Not to mention that some of the sentences that Oyeyemi has crafted are truly exquisite.

But overall I felt like Oyeyemi was creatively overextending herself in this story. Too many issues were addressed but not thoroughly explored. Too many creepy things hinted at but not quite revealed. I wished that the novel had been a little more polished.

The story overall was a very bleak slice of life, primarily focusing on Miranda. Which is unfortunate because I didn't like Miranda. Miranda is a bit of a two-dimensional cliche of a mentally ill young woman. Also, I really loved that one of the narrators was the house, but I didn't feel like we heard enough from their perspective.

Ultimately, I had a lot of questions throughout the story that I felt were never answered. And not in a good, ambiguous ending way. More like a "why did the thread of this story get dropped so quickly" kinda way. All of our narrators are unreliable but the true story is never really revealed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Death of parent