We Chit Chat – Ginger Bread by Helen Oyeyemi

Leggy: So, Ginger Bread.

Taynement: Umm…so like wtf?

Leggy: lmaoooooo

Taynement: It’s like I know this about Helen Oyeyemi and for some reason I keep thinking this time will be different.

Leggy: This is my first Helen Oyeyemi book and it was an…interesting experience.

Taynement: This is my third book of hers. I couldn’t finish “Boy Snow Bird” and even though I found “Icarius Girl” hella weird, I was still intrigued. But this…this is something else. How do you even pitch this to publishers?

Leggy: I just don’t understand. It was weird but not weird enough to make sense. I wasn’t intrigued. Honestly, I kept reading to see if something would click into place at the end but it was actually literal. There was no metaphor waiting to be revealed. I was confused and unsure what was happening like 70% of the time.

Taynement: It basically lacked focus. I didn’t get why gingerbread was the focus. In the beginning, you think it must have more meaning but you find out, nope, it’s just gingerbread.

Leggy: I actually thought this was going to be a retelling of Hansel and Gretel because of the gingerbread title. Like what Naomi Novik does with her books, where she takes a popular fairy tale and retells it from a very compelling point of view. But this was nothing like that. It didn’t have a point. It was just a rambling and a string of well written words.

Taynement: oooh, that makes sense. I’m actually struggling with what to say about this book. It was a jigsaw puzzle that didn’t fit. How would you classify this book? As in, what genre?

Leggy: Magical realism?

Taynement: Not fantasy?

Leggy: I don’t think so. it’s super high concept and abstract. Fantasy is in a different world but super grounded in reality still.

Taynement: I mean, I don’t think there’s much left to say except for me, this was not an enjoyable book. There were so many plot points that went through so many different routes. It took you all over the place where you couldn’t even enjoy the journey because you’re spending half the time trying to figure out what is going on. It wasn’t a super long book but it felt really long. I got nothing out of this book and this might just be it for me with this author.

Leggy: This was definitely not for me. I didn’t enjoy anything about this book. There were some glimpses of potential that kept me going but at the end, nothing was realised. I would not recommend. Gave this 1 star on goodreads.

Taynement & Leggy