Reviews
"[A] challenging, mind-bending exploration of class and female power heavily spiced with nutmeg and sweetened with molasses."--Ron Charles, The Washington Post "Playful, enchanting...a modern-day fairy tale with a mysterious twist."-- Marie Claire "Like a fairy tale tethered to reality, Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread is as warm and piquant as the foodstuff it's named for." - Harper's Bazaar "[T]he novel's real enchantment is its experimentation with storytelling itself. . .this book is not only about childhood, but also what it feels like to be a child." -- Time "Fans of Oyeyemi's work won't want to miss it, and first-time readers will become fans, too." - Bust Magazine "Helen Oyeyemi's writing is full of enchantment and magical details, and will make you want to dive into your own family's rich legacy. Side effects include cravings for gingerbread." - Woman's Day "From a childhood best friend named Gretel to a family recipe passed down through generations, Oyeyemi takes us on a journey that is wild and adventurous. Gingerbread is a novel you won't soon forget."--PopSugar "Oyeyemi takes the familiar contours of a children's tale and twists it into something completely new, unsettling, and uncanny. . .A strange, shape-shifting novel about the power of making your own family."-- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "Idiosyncratically brilliant. . .Oyeyemi excels at making the truly astounding believable and turning even the most familiar tales into something strange and new. This fantastic and fantastical romp is a wonderful addition to her formidable canon."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Beguiling."--Buzzfeed Books "[ Gingerbread ] has the tinge of the folkloric to it: There are family feuds, a childhood friend named Gretel, and many more archetypal touchstones. Tying this all together is Oyeyemi's deft hand, virtuosic lyricism, and graceful ability to find transcendence in all aspects of life, sweet and spicy alike."--Nylon.com " Gingerbread is the story's metaphorical core, both sweet and spicy, simple and yet it is the hook for much strange and bizarrely haunting children's folklore, and Oyeyemi manages to make something just as complicated and delicious; her prose is not without its bite."--Vogue.com "Helen Oyeyemi never disappoints, and she's done it again. Gingerbread ...is her best work yet."--HelloGiggles " Gingerbread looks set to bring more of her inventiveness and wit to a fairytale element--gingerbread, of course--that holds a mysterious place in children's literature."--Literary Hub "Oyeyemi's trademark imagination makes for an enchanting, unreal story about legacy and birthright."--Esquire.com "Oyeyemi's latest is a clever subversion of fairy tale tropes to expose the secrets, entanglements, and estrangements within a family...Both a scathing indictment of capitalism and a tribute to the maddeningly inescapable endurance of family bonds, this enchanting tale will resonate with literary fiction lovers." - Booklist "[A] rollicking tale from the wildly inventive Oyeyemi." - Library Journal, Praise for Gingerbread: "Oyeyemi takes the familiar contours of a children's tale and twists it into something completely new, unsettling, and uncanny.... The effect is heady, surreal, and disarming--you have to be willing to surrender to Oyeyemi's vision and the delicious twists and turns of her prose. Oyeyemi fans will likely be charmed. New readers will wonder what on Earth they've discovered. A strange, shape-shifting novel about the power of making your own family."-- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "In Oyeyemi's idiosyncratically brilliant latest (following Boy, Snow, Bird ), she spins a tale about three generations of women and the gingerbread recipe that is their curse and their legacy.... Oyeyemi excels at making the truly astounding believable and turning even the most familiar tales into something strange and new. This fantastic and fantastical romp is a wonderful addition to her formidable canon."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Beguiling."--Buzzfeed Books "[ Gingerbread ] has the tinge of the folkloric to it: There are family feuds, a childhood friend named Gretel, and many more archetypal touchstones. Tying this all together is Oyeyemi's deft hand, virtuosic lyricism, and graceful ability to find transcendence in all aspects of life, sweet and spicy alike."--Nylon " Gingerbread is the story's metaphorical core, both sweet and spicy, simple and yet it is the hook for much strange and bizarrely haunting children's folklore, and Oyeyemi manages to make something just as complicated and delicious; her prose is not without its bite."--Vogue "Helen Oyeyemi never disappoints, and she's done it again. Gingerbread ...is her best work yet."--HelloGiggles " Gingerbread looks set to bring more of her inventiveness and wit to a fairytale element--gingerbread, of course--that holds a mysterious place in children's literature."--Literary Hub "Oyeyemi's trademark imagination makes for an enchanting, unreal story about legacy and birthright."--Esquire "Oyeyemi's latest is a clever subversion of fairy tale tropes to expose the secrets, entanglements, and estrangements within a family...Both a scathing indictment of capitalism and a tribute to the maddeningly inescapable endurance of family bonds, this enchanting tale will resonate with literary fiction lovers." - Booklist "[A] rollicking tale from the wildly inventive Oyeyemi." - Library Journal, Praise for What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours : "Magical and show stopping." --Elle.com "Oyeyemi so expertly melds the everyday, the fantastic, and the eternal, we have to ask if the line between 'real' and 'unreal' is murkier than we imagined--or to what extent a line exists at all. . . .The deeper one descends into the fabulist warrens of these stories, the more mystery and menace abound, and with each story I had the delightful and rare experience of being utterly surprised. . . .Transcendent." -- The New York Times Book Review "It is, in a word, flawless. . . .Oyeyemi seems to be incapable of writing anything that's not wholly original. . . .Oyeyemi manages to make the story both realistic and fantastical, and the characters are rendered with grace and compassion. . . . What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a lot of things: dreamy, spellbinding, and unlike just about anything you can imagine. It's a book that resists comparisons; Oyeyemi's talent is as unique as it is formidable." -- Michael Schaub, NPR "Oyeyemi's fictional world is scintillating and eccentric, an 'implosion of memory,' as one character puts it.-- The New Yorker " What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours . . . boasts ambitious stories written masterfully by an adventurous author, and is another example of Oyeyemi's skill at finding inspiration in the smallest and most ephemeral details." --Women in the World , in association with The New York Times, Praise for Gingerbread: "Playful, enchanting...a modern-day fairy tale with a mysterious twist."-- Marie Claire "Like a fairy tale tethered to reality, Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread is as warm and piquant as the foodstuff it's named for." - Harper's Bazaar "[T]he novel's real enchantment is its experimentation with storytelling itself. . .this book is not only about childhood, but also what it feels like to be a child." -- Time "Fans of Oyeyemi's work won't want to miss it, and first-time readers will become fans, too." - Bust Magazine "Helen Oyeyemi's writing is full of enchantment and magical details, and will make you want to dive into your own family's rich legacy. Side effects include cravings for gingerbread." - Woman's Day "From a childhood best friend named Gretel to a family recipe passed down through generations, Oyeyemi takes us on a journey that is wild and adventurous. Gingerbread is a novel you won't soon forget."--PopSugar "Oyeyemi takes the familiar contours of a children's tale and twists it into something completely new, unsettling, and uncanny.... The effect is heady, surreal, and disarming--you have to be willing to surrender to Oyeyemi's vision and the delicious twists and turns of her prose. Oyeyemi fans will likely be charmed. New readers will wonder what on Earth they've discovered. A strange, shape-shifting novel about the power of making your own family."-- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "In Oyeyemi's idiosyncratically brilliant latest (following Boy, Snow, Bird ), she spins a tale about three generations of women and the gingerbread recipe that is their curse and their legacy.... Oyeyemi excels at making the truly astounding believable and turning even the most familiar tales into something strange and new. This fantastic and fantastical romp is a wonderful addition to her formidable canon."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Beguiling."--Buzzfeed Books "[ Gingerbread ] has the tinge of the folkloric to it: There are family feuds, a childhood friend named Gretel, and many more archetypal touchstones. Tying this all together is Oyeyemi's deft hand, virtuosic lyricism, and graceful ability to find transcendence in all aspects of life, sweet and spicy alike."--Nylon.com " Gingerbread is the story's metaphorical core, both sweet and spicy, simple and yet it is the hook for much strange and bizarrely haunting children's folklore, and Oyeyemi manages to make something just as complicated and delicious; her prose is not without its bite."--Vogue.com "Helen Oyeyemi never disappoints, and she's done it again. Gingerbread ...is her best work yet."--HelloGiggles " Gingerbread looks set to bring more of her inventiveness and wit to a fairytale element--gingerbread, of course--that holds a mysterious place in children's literature."--Literary Hub "Oyeyemi's trademark imagination makes for an enchanting, unreal story about legacy and birthright."--Esquire.com "Oyeyemi's latest is a clever subversion of fairy tale tropes to expose the secrets, entanglements, and estrangements within a family...Both a scathing indictment of capitalism and a tribute to the maddeningly inescapable endurance of family bonds, this enchanting tale will resonate with literary fiction lovers." - Booklist "[A] rollicking tale from the wildly inventive Oyeyemi." - Library Journal
