A review by fantine729
Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

2.0

I purchased this while waiting for a flight from Hartford to Detroit, choosing it over another book I already had in my hands because I had always wanted to read something by Oates and, as the mother of 2 black girls, I found the synopsis interesting. Now I wish I had that other book! Though I know that you should never judge a book by its cover, I felt that this book never lived up to its description. It kept the pages turning, barely, but the ending left me thinking "WTF?" There was nothing mysterious in the roommate's death, in my opinion! The plot sold simply was not the plot that was delivered, which alone wouldn't really matter much, except the book was schizoid. As for the race issues that so compelled me, I feel that this book could have been written about two white girls with the same result. The best that I can offer is that it killed the time on two flights for me.