A review by apollinares
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

I was going to rate this one higher, I really was - the play on fairytales and superstition as Oyeyemi explored race and womanhood through Boy was interesting and inventive. The second half dragged, and I felt like a lot of the setup of Part 1 (and even the epistolary sections of Part 2) went completely unresolved, but even then - it continued to be a story I wanted to see to the end, with the characters' duplicitous and compelling natures (combined with the lyrical prose) still engaging my interest. 

Then, in Part 3, a wildly transphobic "plot twist" came out of nowhere and completely sucker-punched me, in all honesty. It had no place in the story, no meaning in regards to what had already been set up, and generally ruined whatever appreciation I had had for this book until that point. Even if it was a cruel take on the existence of trans people, BUT had a place in the story, I might have forgiven Oyeyemi. But the whole thing felt like it was added as a TERF-y social media kind of "gotcha" - meaningless, factually incorrect, and just there for cheap shock value. I expected better of a "celebrated author".