Reviews tagging 'Grief'

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

13 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: 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

maceydowns's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

upon finishing I immediately had to go back and read the beginning again. Such a unique read that I’m sure you’d get more from on every reread 🖤

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Body horror, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

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

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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

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: Xenophobia, Eating disorder, Death of parent, and Racism

Moderate: Grief, Addiction, Abandonment, and Confinement

Minor: Stalking and War

miyothecat's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Incest, and Suicide

common_nonsense's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Grief, Eating disorder, Body horror, Racism, and Bullying

ivy123's review

dark mysterious slow-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

4.25

This book is like nothing I have ever read I am not sure how to talk about it. The writing style takes awhile to get used to and in a way I dont think I ever did get used to it. It is told from multiple perspectives all leading up to the disappearance of the main character Miranda but sometimes you do not even know it has switched perspectives till something about how the person is talking clicks. The writing is also very lyrical, haunting and at times dreamlike which can make I interpretation challenging at times. 

I loved the intergenerational links between the women in the family and the perspective from the house itself was an interesting twist. There were actually parts in the story that creeped me out as well and for someone who struggles to get that scared feeling from books this story provided. I love me a female female romance and that was also delivered by the book. Theres also some interesting points on racism both overt and subtle woven throughout the story which gave another layer to the story. 

However despite the premise I found there was not really much of a plot but that didnt actually both me that much. In fact it seemed there were lots of things in here that would usually put me off no happy or conclusive ending, hard to read writing style, not much happening etc but somehow I found myself enjoying it for what it was and not being too bothered by it which made this so very hard to rate. Definetly keen to give her other works a go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Minor: Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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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.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder and Death of parent

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

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: Eating disorder, Grief, and Addiction

Moderate: Confinement