Helen Oyeyemi

all of my favorite author's published works <3

May 26, 2024

“I don’t see those things as magic… I think that what happens a lot in the way that I write and the way that I conceive of fiction is that while I’m making things up I might as well just make everything up… You’re already in an unlikely realm so all of the unlikely things can happen.”

— Helen Oyeyemi, when asked about the use of “magic” in her books (Sharma, Ruchira. “Novelist Helen Oyeyemi on Why the City of Prague has Main Character Energy”. Intelligence Squared. Spotify, Feb 14, 2024.)

Please to let me introduce you to my favorite author: Helen Oyeyemi.

Originally from Nigeria, she moved with her family to London when she was 4 yo, & is now a denizen of Prague (see her most recent novel). She keeps a very low profile—she has no website & no social media accounts. She gives only a handful of interviews as part of her book promotion whenever she releases a new one. & probably the most personal information you can find about her is from her goodreads bio.

But oh! her books. The first book of hers I ever read was GINGERBREAD when it was released in 2019 & from there quickly gobbled up the rest of her books. A few I have reread multiple times. WHITE IS FOR WITCHING and WHAT IS NOT YOURS IS NOT YOURS (a short story collection) are probably her most well-known books but it’s her earliest books, THE ICARUS GIRL (which she wrote while she was in highschool—to use the american term—”studying for her A levels”) and THE OPPOSITE HOUSE that turned my world upside down.

She is also probably one of the few writers for whose works I can pull down literally any book, open it to literally any page, start reading anywhere, & get so immediately & thoroughly absorbed that I will lose track of time & struggle to put it down again.

So what are you waiting for? Go read them all!

(Click on the titles below to purchase each book. I earn commissions from the sponsored links to my shop on bookshop.org which allow me to keep my content like Book Reviews & Reading Lists free to all subscribers. <3)

Main works:

PARASOL AGAINST THE AXE (2024)

—Literary fiction—a socialist realist mystery set in Prague ft. themes of Pragensia, sapphic relationships & female friendships, secret pasts, stories & perception, connection & estrangement, books & their readers (/writers, narrators, characters, etc.), city-narrator, relationships with place (residency, immigration, tourism, etc.), regrets, fault, blame, consequences, weddings & bridal parties, reader experience & interpretation.

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for PARASOL here.

“Vituperator” in THE FURIES (2023)

—Includes her short story "Vituperator"—a sci-fi-esque Queen of Sheba retelling ft. themes of AI, trust, relationships, & neurodivergency.

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for Oyeyemi’s story in this collection here.

PEACES (2021)

—Literary fiction—ft. themes of mental illness, trust, queer relationships, trains, a mongoose, mystery, subverted absurdism, surrealism… I need to reread this one especially.

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for PEACES here.

GINGERBREAD (2019)

—Literary fiction—a Hansel & Gretel retelling (very loose) narrated by a mother-daughter MC pair, ft. themes of home & cultural displacement, “foreign” accents, friendship, handmade expressions of identity, recipes & baking, humor, girlhood & motherhood, letters & photographs, hope, being in love. (Somehow lost my review of this one…)

→ This is one of the only two of her works (along with MR FOX) that I haven’t published a review for yet! I’m planning on rereading it this year & writing a review for it before I start my reread marathon of all of her works in order of publication, which I am planning to do probably sometime in 2025. (Subscribe to be updated about this if you’d like to read along with me!)

WHAT IS NOT YOURS IS NOT YOURS (2015)

—Lit & spec fic short stories—incl. a bookish f/f love story, some Pinocchio-esque, Red Riding Hood, Golden Key / Scheherazade, & Jack & Jill retellings, a feminist, dark academia story, bog mummies, a story on cancel culture & celebrity apologies which takes a gorgeously dark, satisfying turn…

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for WHAT IS NOT YOURS here.

BOY, SNOW, BIRD (2013)

—Literary historical fiction—a Snow White retelling (very loose) ft. themes of mirrors & perception, patriarchal, classist, racial & sociocultural oppression, slow burn plot, family secrets, passing & colorism, chosen family vibes, self-love (nature) vs self-loathing (“nurture”), spiders & tricksters, sisterhood, access to certain cultural & academic spaces, forgiveness & redemption.

—Fwiw, just in case you’ve come across any reviews for this book by readers who have notably misread one of the characters (😬), there are no trans characters in this book. 👀

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for BOY SNOW BIRD here.

MR. FOX (2011)

—Literary fiction—a Reynard the Fox retelling (very loose) ft. spec fic, surrealist, thriller vibes & themes of writing, responsibility & accountability, patriarchy & "the male gaze,"… (Never wrote a review for this one since it was one of the first of her books I read before I was writing reviews so stay tuned for my rereadathon!)

→ See note for GINGERBREAD above. <3

WHITE IS FOR WITCHING (2009)

—Literary gothic horror fiction—ft. themes of sentient/haunted house, twins & siblinghood, Snow White, boutique hotel, soucouyant, mental illness, Haiti, Dover, familial legacy & inherited trauma, university life, immigration, photography, English xenophobia & racism, changelings. (See my review on storygraph—link below.)

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for WHITE IS FOR WITCHING here.

THE OPPOSITE HOUSE (2007)

—Literary fiction—ft. themes of Yoruba spiritual traditions, Catholicism, & mythology; neurodivergency; Death; inherited strength & inherited trauma; displacement & cultural estrangement; homesickness & nostalgia; identity through memory. (See my review on storygraph—link below.)

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for OPPOSITE HOUSE here.

JUNIPER’S WHITENING and VICTIMESE (2005)

—Two plays she wrote while at college in Cambridge—spec fic & dark academia vibes.

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ .5 review for JUNIPER’S WHITENING & VICTIMESE here.

THE ICARUS GIRL (2005)

—Her debut "horror" (though trying to ascribe genre to any of her works is fraught) novel—she wrote it when she was 18 yo—ft. themes of reality, control, names & identity, mental illness.

—Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for ICARUS GIRL here.