Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

5 reviews

perfectcupoftea's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Hate crime

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty and Incest

singalana's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Murder, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

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

traa's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Eating disorder, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

readerette's review against another edition

I loved Gingerbread in all its quirky glory, but White is for Witching held no charm for me. None of the characters have any warmth, and though they are interesting, I have no investment in the story or their lives because they just seem detached from anything meaningful or good. I have a feeling the second half of the book would remedy some of that but not enough faith or energy to find out. I'm also not impressed that one of the only Black characters to get close to the main character is disturbingly close to the Magic Negro stereotype.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol