Reviewed by empressbrooke on
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 1 July, 2018: Finished reading
- 1 July, 2018: Reviewed
White is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
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. Joining voices with her brother and her best friend Ore, it tells her story: haunting in every sense, and a spine-tingling tribute to the power of magic, myth and memory. Miri I conjure you . . .
`Superbly atmospheric. The dark tones of Poe in her haunting have the elasticity of Haruki Murakami's surreal mental landscapes' Independent
`The kind of prose that creeps off the page, crawls up the spine and burrows deep into the reader's paralysed mind' Daily Mail
`White is for Witching should establish Oyeyemi as an ambitious voice in modern macabre; master of the light, lyrical touch and dark, half-hinted suggestion' The Times
`Entrancing' TLS
`Helen Oyeyemi was a literary prodigy. Now, she is ready to make the transition from wunderkind to established author. Remarkable' Daily Telegraph