Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2014: After escaping the cruel wrath of her abusive father, Boy Novak finds comfort in a small Massachusetts suburb and a widower named Arturo, whom she later marries. Boy is quite taken with Arturo's daughter Snow, but it's the daughter she has with Arturo that complicates their quiet lives--Bird's birth reveals that both Arturo and Boy are light-skinned African-Americans passing for white. Harkening back to the great passing narratives, like Charles W. Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition and, most notably, Passing by Nella Larsen, Boy, Snow, Bird is about both the exterior and interior complexities of racial identity. The perception of Arturo and Boy's race and social class is threatened by Bird. But it's the psychological conflicts that are the most devastating. Arturo was raised with "the idea that there was no need to ever say, that if you knew who you were then that was enough, that not saying was not the same as lying." Is passing dishonest if it isn't an active decision? Boy, Snow, Bird is a retelling of Snow White, and the wit and lyricism of Helen Oyeyemi's prose shares the qualities of a fable. But this novel isn't content to conclude with an easy moral. In fact, Oyeyemi complicates the themes she establishes. Her writerly charms shouldn't be taken for granted; the beauty of her writing hides something contemplative and vital, waiting to be uncovered by readers. --Kevin Nguyen
Review
“Gloriously unsettling…the greatest joy of reading Oyeyemi will always be style: jagged and capricious at moments, lush and rippled at others, always singular, like the voice-over of a fever dream.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“With her fifth novel, 29-year-old Helen Oyeyemi has fully transformed from a literary prodigy into a powerful, distinctive storyteller…[Boy, Snow, Bird is] transfixing and surprising.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“The outline of [Oyeyemi’s] remarkable career glimmers with pixie dust... Her latest novel, Boy, Snow, Bird, continues on this bewitching path…the atmosphere of fantasy lingers over these pages like some intoxicating incense….Under Oyeyemi’s spell, the fairy-tale conceit makes a brilliant setting in which to explore the alchemy of racism, the weird ways in which identity can be transmuted in an instant — from beauty to beast or vice versa.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“By transforming ‘Snow White’ into a tale that hinges on race and cultural ideas about beauty — the danger of mirrors indeed — Oyeyemi finds a new, raw power in the classic. In her hands, the story is about secrets and lies, mothers and daughters, lost sisters and the impossibility of seeing oneself or being seen in a brutally racist world… [Oyeyemi] elegantly and inventively turns a classic fairy tale inside out.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Oyeyemi is something rare — a born novelist, who gets better every book. Boy, Snow, Bird is an enchanting retelling of Snow White that mixes questions of beauty and vanity with issues of race.”
—Cosmopolitan
“[Oyeyemi] is the literary heir of the late, great Angela Carter, a writer whose fiction glides from swirling archetype and folklore to the wised-up observations of a thoroughly modern womanhood.”
—Laura Miller, Salon
“[Boy, Snow, Bird] explores powerful themes, such as self-perception, race relations, and the role appearance plays in relationships.”
—Real Simple
“Riveting, brilliant and emotionally rich…with fully realized characters, startling images, original observations and revelatory truths, this masterpiece engages the reader’s heart and mind as it captures both the complexities of racial and gender identity in the 20th century and the more intimate complexities of love in all its guises.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Oyeyemi wields her words with economy and grace, and she rounds out her story with an inventive plot and memorable characters.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“This novel is some kind of wonderful.”
—Ebony.com
“Potent and vividly written…Oyeyemi is a wizard with metaphor…you haven’t got a pulse if you’re not shocked by the reveal at the end.”
—NOW Magazine
“Defies classification…Oyeyemi isn’t just pulling the rug out from under our feet, playing with our assumptions about how people look—she’s holding a mirror up to our memories of fairy tales and of history...Stunning and enchanting.”
—Slate
“Helen Oyeyemi is a freaking genius. Her books are so bizarre and brilliant… Write this one down somewhere you’ll remember – like your forehead – because you don’t want to miss it.”
—Bookriot
“Incandescent…stunning…utterly enchanting.”
—A.V. Club
“This is the novel that will get everybody to agree that Helen Oyeyemi is operating on another level, if they haven’t admitted that already. Bending and twisting fairy tales, Oyeyemi is capable of a sort of magic that will leave you gasping for breath.”
—Flavorwire
“Oyeyemi's [voice is] startlingly distinctive yet always undulating…[Boy, Snow, Bird is] a fresh, memorable tale.”
—The Huffington Post
“Boy, Snow, Bird is Helen Oyeyemi’s fifth novel, and it just might be her finest. It’s certainly her most readily accessible…. How [her characters] try and tragically fail to relate to one another proves particularly powerful, as exemplified by the perversely gratifying last act…I couldn’t have stopped reading at this point if I’d wanted to.… a beautiful book.”
—Tor.com
“Commanding and incisive… However strong your sense of personal identity, Boy, Snow, Bird is likely, if you’re reading it right, to make you a bit uncomfortable in your own skin, and that’s quite an achievement.”
—The Grio
“Named as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in 2013, Helen Oyeyemi confidently justifies that accolade with her fifth novel, a powerful intertwining of fairytale and reality. Like all the best fairytales, its deceptively simple surface slowly shifts to reveal dark and troubling truths underneath….Oyeyemi is a master of language; her writing is beautiful and precise, and her ability to hide deep meaning in unassuming words is breathtaking…This is a bewitching book, in every way.”
—The List (UK)
Praise for Mr. Fox
“Oyeyemi’s writing is gorgeous and resonant and fresh . . . a shimmering landscape pulsating with life.”
—Aimee Bender, The New York Times Book Review
“Startling, beautiful . . . [Mr. Fox] should not be ignored.”
—M. E. Collins, Chicago Sun-Times
“Oyeyemi has an eye for the gently perverse, the odd detail that turns the ordinary marvelously, frighteningly strange.”
—Jenny Hendrix, The Boston Globe
“Dazzling.”
—Kerry Fried, The Washington Post
See all Editorial Reviews