Boy, Snow, Bird is the new novel by Helen Oyeyemi. I had read rave reviews about this book and really wanted to read it. It is very loosely based on Snow White.
Set in a small town in New England in 1953, we meet Boy, a girl running away from her abusive father, who marries a man with a young beautiful daughter, Snow Whitman. When Boy has her own daughter, Bird, and sends Snow away, she fulfills the inevitable part in the story where she becomes the wicked stepmother.
Oyeyemi is one of the most original voices writing today and I really wanted to like this book. She takes on issues of race and identity, but for me, it fell flat and just didn't work..
None of the characters were developed enough to understand or care about them. The story jumped around too much, and although there were moments of magic, they were too few to make it seem like a fairy tale. The ending was so out of left field and abrupt, it ruined what little investment I had in the book.
Skip this one, and let's hope Oyeyemi comes out with something better in a few more years.
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