What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
Ratings15
Average rating3.1
The stories collected here are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another. The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi's Day. It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness.
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I love Oyeyemi's style and imaginative ideas, which is why it is so disappointing to me that everything I've read by her has felt so unfinished. [b:White is for Witching 6277227 White is for Witching Helen Oyeyemi https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328020246s/6277227.jpg 6460728] would have been 5 stars up until the second half, when it just lost...something. It's so confusing, because I can't exactly put my finger on what makes Oyeyemi's books so disjointed. I think some of this disjointedness must be on purpose, because she seems like such a talent, and that just leaves me confused. I feel sad that I can't seem to love her work and that makes me tempted to keep trying...
A linked story collection shot through with a theme of keys, this one sounded promising. I read the first story in its entirety and enjoyed it. But I kept thinking I was missing something. Then into the second story I persevered for at least a dozen pages before skimming to the end because I had no idea what was going on. Tried the third story but quickly lost patience. Nope.
Excellent collection of short stories with fully developed worlds and characters.
