"It is useful, instructive, comforting to show that you are not alone in your history. So I have done you good and now, some harm."

I'm going to be upfront with you - I liked White is for Witching, but I sure as hell did not understand all of it. I'm going to do my best to write this review, and I'm 100% open to discussion if you feel like you grasped something that I didn't. I want to understand, but I think a lot of this book went over my head.

Despite my confusion, I really enjoyed reading White is for Witching. Maybe my confusion was supposed to be part of my reading experience since the characters are also confused. This was my introduction to Helen Oyeyemi, and her writing is so beautiful. Her words are fairy tale-esque, and hauntingly descriptive.

This book divides its time between a few different characters, and I'm pretty sure the house was one of the narrators. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on. White is for Witching has some great spooky scenes surrounding the house. I saw some other reviews referecing The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and I totally agree with this. Everything points to ghosts as a horror reader, but it's never entirely clear what is in the main character's head, and what isn't.

I feel like I didn't fully understand what this book was trying to say about racism. I saw an article talking about the ghosts representing racism, and I need to read more about it to understand. There's racism occurring with certain characters, which I got, but I feel like there's a bigger message that I missed (based on the article I read). I'm just confused about a lot of things.

I know it sounds like I didn't enjoy this book, but I really did. I lost a little interest in the middle, but it looped back around. I'm not sure what happened at the end, and this review is probably basically useless to you. I recommend reading the book, and checking out other reviews that are not written by me 😂. I'm reading back over my notes, and there's so much more to add, but I'm going to cut off my rambling now.

White is for Witching - Likewise Book Reviews

5 Reviews