Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

6 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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Gore, Eating disorder, Racism, and Body horror

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Violence, and Cannibalism

Minor: Homophobia, War, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Incest, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

poirot's review

dark 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Racism

Moderate: Gore and Confinement

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, and Drug use

headachesince03's review

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder and Death of parent

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

madarauchiha's review

slow-paced

 ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜  my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️

I'll be honest. I don't think gothic genre is for me. I can tell this is excellently written, but I'm not at all hooked or interested in it. I'll finish reading it though.

Ok I finished. Spiritually I checked out at the 47 percent mark so I'm not sure what happened. Things. Things happened, in a very dreamy manner. Welp. No rating, personally.

Content warnings:
Minor: blood, nazism, ww1, antiblack racist caricature, sexual content, emetophobia / vomit, rape, sexual violence, unsanitary, beastiality, sexual content, drugs weed, Adolf hitler mention , 

Medium: psychiatric institutions, gore, self harm, xenophobia, murder, suicide, anti immigration rhetoric, prison abuse, blood, alcohol use, smoking tobacco, mass shooting, parental death, gun violence 

Major: eating disorders, mental illness, lesbophobic d slur, violence, sexual content, violence, 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Gore, Self harm, Xenophobia, Murder, Suicide, Drug use, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Confinement

Minor: Blood, Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, Sexual violence, Drug use, and Lesbophobia