White is for Witching

Tiptree longlist 2010. Can't see how it got onto the longlist in the first place. It's more lke a lit-fic "middle-class angst" type story about a girl with a eating disorder than anything specifically SF&F. Plus doesn't say much about gender to me. ( )

Found through whichbook.net

Narrated by three characters - Miranda's twin brother Eliot, Miranda's university friend Ore Lind, and the Silver House itself - this twisted fairy tale may have been better off as a short story. I wanted to like it more, but it felt unclear and lacked momentum and suspense.

What I mean is, each act of speech stands on the belief that someone will hear. (Eliot, p. 4)

She won't forget or recover, she is inconsolable. (Eliot, p. 106) ( )

Creepy and very difficult to keep track of, but good. ( )

Probably the hardest book I’ve ever tried to review. White is for witching is an enticing, complex and often perplexing read. The writing is exquisite but a little too intoxicated with itself for my taste, the twisty, high-metaphorical style making the story far more confusing than it really needs to be. I felt throughout that the writer was reaching to be elusive and mysterious when she really didn’t need to be – the wonderful writing and the story were enough.

I also thought the multiple viewpoints were a mistake and added to the fog of confusion; a single voice would have worked better. Slightly more sympathetic characters would have been nice too – everyone was just a bit too dislikeable.

Helen Oyeyemi is a terrific writer but in this book she seemed to be trying too hard for freshness, novelty and cleverness. I think White is for Witching would have been a far better novel if she’d just told her story without all the smoke and mirrors. ( )

Rating: 2* of five

The Book Report: Teenaged girl from a long line of off-kilter female ancestors loses her mother after developing a rare eating disorder. Clueless males make things worse. Her house is haunted. Blah blah blah.

My Review: I cannot believe I wasted eyeblinks on this boring, vapid girl. Her mother couldn't stand her to the point of being gone most of the time, and I say go mom. Dad's a selfish, clueless cretin.

In short, nothing new, except the little dullard has an affliction called “pica,” which makes her eat non-biological non-foodstuffs. Oh goody good good, another girl with an eating disorder that makes her Different from others, isolated, misunderstood! How refreshing! Such a bold storytelling choice. Why, NO ONE does that! Oh, and then there's the aforementioned clueless maleness. My sweet saints, why has no woman thought to use *that* in her books before?

Two stars for introducing me to pica. Apart from that, I'd've settled on 1/2-star and a much longer, more vituperative attack on the pointless, me-too, competently written snore-inducingly dull book. ( )