Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

5 reviews

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

emalderwood's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Racism

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

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

baknata's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

This book left me completely shaken when I finished it. It took a while to get into. It wasn't until I was close to halfway done with the book that it started flowing for me. It wasn't that the writing was bad, the book is just very heady and you have to pay a lot of attention to everything you read, which is hard for me. The plot of the book is also pretty heavy, so it isn't easy to just fly through it. When I did get past the halfway point, the book really did pick up for me. The plot at that point shifts as well, and I found the storyline a lot more engaging. The end of the book hit me like a brick. The book starts off with a hint as to how it ends, but I didn't expect to be affected so much by it.

Obviously, from the beginning of the book we know something happens to Miranda. I think I knew that in the back of my mind, but the way it happened hurt so much. The way she left, or whatever, and the impact it must have had on the people around her, it just hurt. We spent the entire book seeing how much these people cared about her and how she clearly wanted to be the kind of person that they should care about, but she couldn't be well. It makes me so sad that she was never even given a chance, her story was written from the beginning and she couldn't stop her fate.

 
I thought the way the book was written was fascinating. The use of unusual formatting and varying POVs made the book interesting to read. I did have trouble with the way the POV shifts were written at first since there isn't any indication as to whose point of view we were reading. As I went along, it became easier to tell, especially considering the author used both first-person and third-person points of view for different people. I also thought it was super unique and interesting to have the house have a narration as well. You don't see many books where the buildings tell the story, and for this one, it definitely added an interesting view of the events.
Overall, I think my rating would be higher for a reread of this book. It's the type of book that you need to reread a few times to really pick up on all the themes and intricacies of the plot. It was very well written, and I would recommend it for fans of thrillers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Eating disorder, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement