Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

9 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

chelseareads's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Yikes. I'm not used to reading this type of book and it was a lot. But so well-written and carefully planned. The narration was excellent and the pacing was good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Eating disorder, Gore, and Racism

Moderate: Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Animal cruelty

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

valent1ne's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Incest and Cannibalism

Minor: Animal cruelty

kattyenn's review

dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood and Cannibalism

frankenqueer's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Hate crime, Gore, and Cannibalism

Minor: Death of parent

moyerholly's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book challenged me and my students, and I loved it the whole time. It's a hard book intellectually and emotionally, but an incredibly rewarding reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Cannibalism

fantasticraccoon's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Mental illness

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Incest

emotes's review

dark mysterious

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Cannibalism, Incest, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts