Bird: A Novel, Snow, Boy

This sounded like a "chick book," but a variety of reviewers recommended it, so I gave it a try. Well, it is geared more toward readers who are interested in sisterhood and what it means regardless of the circumstances - so yes, my initial impression was correct. It is well written and it deftly weaves the theme of racial prejudice throughout the story, The book ends rather abruptly, and I would have liked to see more of the story told from Snow's viewpoint to match the amount of words devoted to Boy and Bird. I was not bored by the book, but I was also not particularly moved by it.

Story disjointed; not enough information to explain actions of characters. Would like to have read something from Snow's point of view. Lousy, disappointing ending!!!!! Oyeyemi does write beautifully and obviously has a very creative mind!!!

After listening to an NPR interview, I couldn't resist reading Helen Oyeyemi's latest book. I was intrigued with the fact that she was born and grew up in Africa, and was curious about a story that had ties with Snow White. The story held my interest with her unique writing style and because I kept waiting for the Disney version of Snow White to pop up at any moment! The ending took me totally by surprise, I did not see "that" coming! (No hints, don't want to be a spoiler for other readers!)

An entirely different way of reading an all too familiar story, "Boy, Snow, Bird" was exquisitely written by an author who clearly loves words and how they can be put together. The perspectives are unique and don't just dress up an old character in a new setting. Yet, Oyeyemi leaves familiar markings that help guide the reader in the story mapping. The depths of the individuals portrayed was just brilliant with this book just covered in highlighted portions and paragraphs that I would exclaim about and require my husband to bear witness to them aloud. A fantastic read, a brilliant voice capable of many iterations, and an all over magnificent work with an important insight into racism.

A unique blending of fairy tale and folklore intermingled with issues in relationships and societies. The reader is in for unexpected disclosures. Oyeyemi has a writing talent and style which envelops and captivates her readers.

Written on what seems like a 4th grade level, about a family trying to pass for white at any cost back in th 40's (or so) ? There are plot twists that seems to make no sense or are only used for shock effect, but are not very shocking in these days. Main character is not very empathetic, and things are just left trailing. The reader doesn't understand the motivations clearly. Very disappointing as it came highly recommended.

The title are the names of the three main characters: a woman, her stepdaughter and her daughter. Tensions within one family written in a very skillful way. The character's have real personality and great phrasing and expression of ideas. The conflict this family deals with are easily extrapolated to serve as a metaphor for those same conflicts of the time in history. Then there's the surprise ending which was also very period specific.

I'm impressed by Oyeyemi's accomplishment, having already published 5 novels by the age of 29. I wanted so badly to love this book, and the first half kept me intrigued. But the second half drug on for me, and I felt like if I just kept reading I'd find the part that made me say, "Ah hah! This is the part that makes this book sooooo good." But, it never came. And, although I enjoyed the plot twist that came at the end of the book, I would have loved it so much more if it had been introduced earlier in the story. Overall, characters and prose were great, but the plot and the theme didn't grab me.

Got confused with the people and what was going on between them. She was not seen in the mirror when she looked at herself? I got that, one was black and one was white. Is that why they placed one girl in an Aunts home? The girls wanted to be sisters no matter what the color of their skin. The one girl was always imagining strange things, talking to spiders,etc.

I expected more from this book based on the reviews. I was disappointed and that is saying something since I read a lot and normally find something to like about each book that I read but this one was boring and strange.

Although I finished this book, I found it very strange. It was difficult to connect to any of the characters and I really didn't particularly enjoy it. I don't know that I would read this author again.

Ms Oyeyemi should do more research on a period in which she has no experience before attempting to write a novel in that period. The book is full of anachronisms that proved highly distracting making the rest of the book unbelievable to me. Just for your information. ..the word "fractal" was not coined until the late 1970's, and posters did not become popular as kid's room decor until the 1960's. The relationships all read like something from 2015. In short, I decided not to waste my time about 25 per cent into the book.

Perhaps I was not attentive enough when reading this, but I found this book very hard to follow no matter how many re-reads. I feel it was too much work to try and keep up/figure it all out, and I'm still unsure of many parts. Hopefully my book club will clarify these.

I thought it was supposed to be "eerily beautiful " but in fact it is a muddled mess of tenuously related subplots. There is no closure, there is no explaining why Ms. Oyeyemi threw in the mirror issue or the talking spiders or transgenderism as none of these things have much to do with character or plot development. It was like spending several hours with an unmedicated schizophrenic- maybe not a total waste of time if you're feeling charitable but youre not really left with any sense of connection to what he or she was telling you.