Helen Oyeyemi

Haunting in every sense, White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi is a spine-tingling tribute to the power of magic, myth and memory. High on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the loss of Lily, mother of twins Eliot and Miranda, and beloved wife of Luc. Miranda misses her with particular intensity. Their mazy, capricious house belonged to her mother’s ancestors, and to Miranda, newly attuned to spirits, newly hungry for chalk, it seems they have never left. Forcing apples to grow in winter, revealing and concealing secret floors, the house is fiercely possessive of young Miranda . . .

White is for Witching

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award One of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists From the acclaimed author of Boy, Snow, Bird There’s something strange about the Silver family house in the closed-off town of Dover, England. Grand and cavernous with hidden passages and buried secrets, it’s been home to four generations of Silver women—Anna, Jennifer, Lily, and now Miranda, who has lived in the house with her twin brother, Eliot, ever since their father converted it to a bed-and-breakfast. The Silver women have always had a strong connection, a pull over one another that reaches across time and space, and when Lily, Miranda’s mother, passes away suddenly while on a trip abroad, Miranda begins suffering strange ailments. An eating disorder starves her. She begins hearing voices. When she brings a friend home, Dover’s hostility toward outsiders physically manifests within the four walls of the Silver house, and the lives of everyone inside are irrevocably changed. At once an unforgettable mystery and a meditation on race, nationality, and family legacies, White is for Witching is a boldly original, terrifying, and elegant novel by a prodigious talent.

White Is for Witching

Ashlyn

"I think Poe's quite good, actually. The whole casual horror thing. Like someone standing next to you and screaming their head off and you asking them what the fuck and them stopping for a moment to say 'Oh you know, I'm just afraid of Death' and then they keep on with the screaming."

With distinct originality and grace, and an extraordinary gift for making the fantastic believable, Oyeyemi spins the politics of family and nation into a riveting and unforgettable tale.

I love when writers do weird shit and Helen Oyeyemi does it so well. This one really keeps you on your toes with the switching perspectives and unreliable narration. 

Emily Lucie

took a little bit to get interesting but i enjoyed it! oyeyemi’s constantly switching povs is a little difficult to understand at first, but overall these differing point of views create a more surreal and dreamlike narrative. i’m obsessed with the way that oyeyemi uses a haunted house and a hereditary disease as a representation of generational trauma. oyeyemi also delves into race relations in the uk, and the way generational traumas are passed down and changed through different races. 

Clara Gauthier

Maga P

Well, that sure was a disquieting read.

I'm very in love with the way it used the concept of genii loci sucking up and then reflecting the racism of a previous owner and That being the horror, as well as the way it integrated the theme in the narrative.

I would recommend it for the excellent creepy imagery and stylization, wouldn't recommend it if you're not fond of non-endings and loose plots with more flair than anything.

This book feels kinda like a Murakami book if Murakami could keep his pervy-ness at bay. It's also pretty creepy in the don't-turn-out-the-lights way, in the maybe-I'm-the-monster way. Oyeyemi delivered more than what I had expected. I'll be thinking of this book for some time to come. 🍎

Clara Moore

I agree with many others here that this is a hard book to write a review for! It is in no way a traditional story. It changes POV throughout and you start to pick up on who is who but it is definitely a challenge. I like how cyclical the book was but felt that a lot of the story didn't really add to the ending. I've pondered the story for awhile and still am unsure how to feel about it! It is a good book for discussing with others as I think everyone experiences it differently.

Jenna

3.5 stars. White is for Witching follows the Silver family, who live in an old family house in Dover that has been converted into an inn. Miranda and Eliot are twins who live with their dad after their mom died suddenly. Miranda has pica and eats chalk, and all of the previous generations of Silver women were afflicted with an insatiable hunger. The house is a huge player in this novel, as it is “alive” in some ways, and even narrates parts of the book. This is sort of a coming of age story, as it follows Miranda and Eliot as they apply for and go away to college.

This book was unsettling and a little bit spooky. It just gave me all the creepy vibes and let me carry on those Halloween feelings for a little longer (though you could read it at any time). I was rooting for Miranda to get well and recover from her mental illness but she’s in very deep and the house and actual ghosts are working against her. The writing in this book is bewitching and kind of strange but also lovely. There’s also some social commentary about immigration and racism weaved in.

I was a big fan of my first Oyeyemi, and I definitely plan to read more of her work. I’d recommend this book to you if you like books with supernatural elements, old haunted houses, uneasy mildly disturbing vibes, and great writing.

Emmett

Oyeyemi's writing style is quite enchanting; I love her use of language, of broken sentences, of sentences linked to one another by a single connecting word (which she does often). The book has an ethereal, magical atmosphere, like looking through smoke or gossamer. Though I readily admit I may not have absorbed all the details and goings-on on the first reading, the strangeness and sudden shifts are bewitching.

Melanie Richards

Enjoyed Oyeyemi’s writing style and would be interested in trying out other books of hers, but this one had me so confused. I don’t think you need to spell everything out when creating a ~ creepy ~ mood, but I personally need a little more structure or detail.

Risa C

This novel felt shrouded in a forebodingly dreamlike atmosphere. The language was poetic at times, inscrutable at others. For most of the book, the dread was oblique, creeping up in between the lines, until it wasn't, hitting you right in between the eyes so that you couldn't miss the very obvious evil that the book had been setting up all along.

Where I found the novel lacking was the characters. Maybe horror stories aren't what you should turn to if you want relatable characters to root for. I didn't particularly care for Miranda or any of the Silvers, or any of the other secondary characters, including Ore. It was probably intentional, but I found it so frustrating that everyone was either indulging Miranda's quirks and apparent illness or in denial or oblivious to the horrors of the house. In fact, the house was my favorite character in the entire book. I thought the voice of the house was delightfully creepy and alive. I love haunted house stories and this is what brought this book from two stars to three.

Suffering an acute form of pica throughout her youth that is exacerbated by her mother's death, sixteen-year-old Miranda helps to run the family bed-and-breakfast while witnessing her community's hostilities toward outsiders, a malice that erupts in violent and destructive ways.

Pamela Forbes

Gorgeous writing and an eerie tale. It was a little much for my mindset, but an interesting read nonetheless. 

Chelsey

4.5. Perhaps if I ponder over it more, I might raise the rating.

Renee Blankenship

This book was incredibly creepy and unsettling to me! Just enough "something moved out of the corner of your eye but now it's gone" to make me not want to read this before bed. I was constantly wondering what was really happening and if all the supernatural type events were a figment of the girl's imagination/sickness or really happening. The sections narrated by the house were also unnerving. This is the second book by Helen Oyeyemi that's I've read and I think she's a really excellent story teller and writer. I just wasn't expecting to be quite so unnerved by the story and especially the ending...I tried explaining the plot/outcome to my husband and couldn't do it justice.

Pia Sophia

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little disappointed here. What happened to the plot? Why is it so hard to keep track of whose POV we're experiencing the story through?

I did enjoy Helen Oyeyemi's writing style. It's original and poetic and that makes me want to give this book another chance. I will reread it one day, maybe I will have a better sense of what's going on then.

White is for Witching

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