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luanabatista's review
medium-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
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
Make no mistake, this is a beautifully written book and the atmosphere of it is positively magical. The first half particularly captivated me, but the back half wasn't as successful. Rather than tying the story together, or even leaving me with delicious ambiguity, I just felt adrift and confused.
oxnard_montalvo's review against another edition
3.0
This starts off so confidently, and with such flair and colour... But that narrative ease gives way to bafflement and confusion by the last quarter. Linguisticly it's great. Narratively it could have been better. I'm just not sure where it was meant to go by the end. After so much detail and plot is given away in dribbles here and there, to have one character plonk down at the kitchen table and simply spell things out... It seemed incongruous.
I would recommend to others, but the suggestion comes with a but.
I would recommend to others, but the suggestion comes with a but.
_niamhss_'s review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-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
ranam's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
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
3.5
Race is a volatile theme in this book. Oyeyemi takes the tale of Cindrella and gives it a twist making it about race and the difficulty to survive and thrive in a racist society, and the overdue foretelling of society acknowledging black beauty. Sometimes the language was crisp, precise, at other times it was a bit esoteric.
There are a couple of magical realism stories woven into the tapestry. I like magical realism novels.
Partly epistlotory, the letters Snow and Bird send back and forth to each other are so interesting they really helped to quicken the pace.
The ending I think points to a future of mothers and daughters (Boy never loved a man, not even her husband,) and the blurring of racial/gender boundaries.
I'm interested in readig Mr. Fox because of the neat title.
There are a couple of magical realism stories woven into the tapestry. I like magical realism novels.
Partly epistlotory, the letters Snow and Bird send back and forth to each other are so interesting they really helped to quicken the pace.
The ending I think points to a future of mothers and daughters (Boy never loved a man, not even her husband,) and the blurring of racial/gender boundaries.
I'm interested in readig Mr. Fox because of the neat title.
kyra_c_c's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the first half. I loved Boy. I'm not sure I properly understood Snow and there were bits that were surreal, symbolism or maybe magical realism which I enjoyed but didn't 'get'. That didn't stop my enjoyment of the book though! I thought Oyeyemi's writing was observant and funny. I agree with other reviewers that the ending does not fit with the rest of the book
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
This book had so much potential, but it totally fell flat for me.
I picked it up because I love retellings, and this one seemed like such a fresh and original take. Using a theoretically possible real life situation with all the historical trappings seemed like such an interesting way of exploring the story of Snow White.
Unfortunately, the author barely scratched the surface of her own concept.
Boy Novak runs from her abusive father and eventually marries for her own security a widower with a daughter aptly named Snow. Upon the birth of their first child, Bird, Boy finds out that her husband and his family are actually African American who live as White people - a huge deal considering the fact that it 's the 1950s. Thus, sets off a chain of events linking Boy, Snow, and Bird for life.
The story is split into three parts: Boy, her biological daughter Bird, and then Boy again. I was caught off guard when Bird's part started but I was willing to go with it as I assumed this was a means of moving the story along. I also wanted to get to the meat of the book which I assumed would be the fallout of Boy's big decision.
However, the segmentation meant nothing because while Bird's part sets up all the pieces for a great climax the decision to go back to Boy as a narrator not only makes no sense, but completely stalls the momentum of the story. Snow never gets her own voice in this book which is a huge weakness when it's supposed to be about how all three women are connected. We also already have enough about Boy in the first part to draw our own conclusions about her reasoning for the rest of the novel.
Worse than that as many of the other 1 to 2 star reviews will tell you there's a completely appalling, wildly transphobic arc (if you could even really call it that) in the final act that shakes the book's foundation so totally that I couldn't in good conscience give this book three stars even if in general that's what it deserves.
Seriously, aside from your own politics or general beliefs the decision also just plain does not fit narratively. It comes straight from out of left field. It's made even worse by the fact that it robs the book of a satisfying conclusion. Instead of touching on any of the themes laid out by Bird's part, it snaps back to Boy to rehash what we already know.
So it's like the author went out of her way to shove this terrible storyline in. I couldn't tell if she was pushing her agenda to the detriment of her own novel or if she genuinely was just ignorant but somehow thought this was a good story anyways. Like I said anyway you slice it, it was still a poor choice.
This is my second book by Helen Oyeyemi and I'm beginning to think she's way overhyped. She excels at creating cool concepts, but she can't deliver on the actual follow through. It's flowery language and symbolism with little substance or explanation. I'm fine with ambiguity, but the kinds of stories she wants to tell suffer for it.
I picked it up because I love retellings, and this one seemed like such a fresh and original take. Using a theoretically possible real life situation with all the historical trappings seemed like such an interesting way of exploring the story of Snow White.
Unfortunately, the author barely scratched the surface of her own concept.
Boy Novak runs from her abusive father and eventually marries for her own security a widower with a daughter aptly named Snow. Upon the birth of their first child, Bird, Boy finds out that her husband and his family are actually African American who live as White people - a huge deal considering the fact that it 's the 1950s. Thus, sets off a chain of events linking Boy, Snow, and Bird for life.
The story is split into three parts: Boy, her biological daughter Bird, and then Boy again. I was caught off guard when Bird's part started but I was willing to go with it as I assumed this was a means of moving the story along. I also wanted to get to the meat of the book which I assumed would be the fallout of Boy's big decision.
However, the segmentation meant nothing because while Bird's part sets up all the pieces for a great climax the decision to go back to Boy as a narrator not only makes no sense, but completely stalls the momentum of the story. Snow never gets her own voice in this book which is a huge weakness when it's supposed to be about how all three women are connected. We also already have enough about Boy in the first part to draw our own conclusions about her reasoning for the rest of the novel.
Worse than that as many of the other 1 to 2 star reviews will tell you there's a completely appalling, wildly transphobic arc (if you could even really call it that) in the final act that shakes the book's foundation so totally that I couldn't in good conscience give this book three stars even if in general that's what it deserves.
Seriously, aside from your own politics or general beliefs the decision also just plain does not fit narratively. It comes straight from out of left field. It's made even worse by the fact that it robs the book of a satisfying conclusion. Instead of touching on any of the themes laid out by Bird's part, it snaps back to Boy to rehash what we already know.
So it's like the author went out of her way to shove this terrible storyline in. I couldn't tell if she was pushing her agenda to the detriment of her own novel or if she genuinely was just ignorant but somehow thought this was a good story anyways. Like I said anyway you slice it, it was still a poor choice.
This is my second book by Helen Oyeyemi and I'm beginning to think she's way overhyped. She excels at creating cool concepts, but she can't deliver on the actual follow through. It's flowery language and symbolism with little substance or explanation. I'm fine with ambiguity, but the kinds of stories she wants to tell suffer for it.
missyjohnson's review against another edition
2.0
hhhmmmmm. don't really know what to say. a little disappointed in the way the ending was done. seems to be an unusual long shot for explanation. I am not buying it.