Not a fanThis book so dramatically mishandles a transgender character. I don't even know if the author is intentionally malicious, but it is done with so little care that I just don't care.
Review 1 of 2
Boy, Snow, Bird (2014)
Others: Mostly negative This novel is a reimagining of the fairy tale Snow White recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity set in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty, the opposite of the life she has left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she would become, but when the birth of Boy's daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white, elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out . Now Boy, Snow, and Bird must confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. -- From book jacket
- ISBN:
- 9780143187448
- Length:
- 312 pages
Genres: fantasy, literary fiction
Lists: …
Similar books
1 of 6
Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
2005 · 3 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world’s greatest storytellers comes “an insistently metaphysical mind-bender” (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and a deceptively simple old man. Now with a new introduction by the author. Here we meet fifteen-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey. “As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.”—Chicago Tribune
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction89%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations11%The Winged Histories
Sofia Samatar
2016 · 318 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedUsing the sword, pen, body, and voice, four women confront a rebellion and the older, stranger threat behind it.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction91%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations9%Bear
Julia Phillips
2024 · 304 pages · 4 reviews
Others: PositiveA mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor — a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth. They were sisters and they would last past the end of time. Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence. Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger. A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us — and within us — Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction93%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations7%Mongrels
Stephen Graham Jones
2016 · 320 pages · 7 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveA spellbinding and darkly humorous coming-of-age story about an unusual boy whose family lives on the fringes of society and struggles to survive in a hostile world that shuns and fears them. He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his Aunt Libby and Uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixedblood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks. For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and close calls—always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they’ve been running from for so long are catching up fast, now. Everything is about to change. A compelling and fascinating journey, Mongrels alternates between past and present to create an unforgettable portrait of a boy trying to understand his family and his place in a complex and unforgiving world. A smart and innovative story—funny, bloody, raw, and real—told in a rhythmic voice full of heart, Mongrels is a deeply moving, sometimes grisly novel that illuminates the challenges and tender joys of a life beyond the ordinary in a bold and imaginative new way.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction94%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations6%The magician's assistant
Ann Patchett
1997 · 357 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveWhat is to become of a magician's assistant without her magician? This is the question Sabine asks herself after the death of Parsifal, the magician she worked with for more than twenty years and her husband for only a few months. Parsifal loved men, especially Phan, and though Sabine loved Parsifal, she contented herself with his friendship. Now Parsifal and Phan are both gone, and Sabine is left with full responsibility for their possessions and their histories. Always the assistant, her life is still defined by service to Parsifal. But in the world of illusion Sabine has occupied for her entire life, things are rarely what they seem. According to Parsifal, he had no living relatives. Now, with his death, comes the news that he has a mother and two sisters living in Alliance, Nebraska. Inevitably, the strangers will meet and Sabine will be carried away from her beloved Los Angeles to seek the truth of Parsifal's past in the bitterly windswept steppes of Nebraska in winter. It is here that Sabine will learn the truth about Parsifal's father, which lies at the heart of his son's abandonment of his family and of his identity. As the members of Parsifal's family turn to Sabine for help, she realizes that she is something of a magician herself. In this newfound strength Sabine may at last find the kind of love she had always been denied.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction95%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations5%Factory
Hiroko Oyamada
2019 · 128 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedIn an unnamed Japanese city, three seemingly normal and unrelated characters find work at a sprawling industrial factory. They each focus intently on their specific jobs: one studies moss, one shreds paper, and the other proofreads incomprehensible documents. Life in the factory has its own logic and momentum, and, eventually, the factory slowly expands and begins to take over everything, enveloping these poor workers. The very margins of reality seem to be dissolving: all forms of life capriciously evolve, strange creatures begin to appear. After a while, it could be weeks or years, the workers don't even have the ability to ask themselves: where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? Told in three alternating first-person narratives, The Factory casts a vivid--if sometimes surreal--portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of modern life. With hints of Kafka and unexpected moments of creeping humor, Hiroko Oyamada is one of the boldest writers of her generation.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction95%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations5%
Not a fan
Mixedit's such an interesting concept i really wanted to love this one but the ending of this book just kind of ruined everything for me