Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Peculiar Collection of Stories Both Surreal and Distinctly Human

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

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It’s been a minute since I’ve read a collection of short stories (or really, short stories in general), so I figured it might be worth a little revisit with Oyeyemi’s collection in What is Not Yours is Not Yours. Once again, I find my personal experience with short stories to be a bit of a mixed bag, not to mention how with any collection put together there are going to be those that are favored and those that are not. For the most part, these […]

Dark and quirky fairytales

What is not yours is not yours by Helen Oyeyemi

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Helen Oyeyemi’s short story collection creates an interlocking and fantastical world that is hard to look away from.  The characters live in slightly different realities, but cross over into each other’s worlds- a side character in one story becomes the main character in their own story next.  Thematically, the stories are connected by imagery of locks and keys which felt fresh- what is behind that door? Who are you keeping out? What are you keeping in? Her imagined worlds are also wildly creative- a hidden […]

Keys and Locks

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This collection of short stories by Helen Oyeyemi is a mix of fairy tale and the modern world, of the fanciful and the dark, with a generous portion of sexuality thrown in. In some ways, it reminds me of Angela Carter’s work, but Oyeyemi’s stories, while dealing with heavy themes such as betrayal, abandonment and disappointment, maintain a lightness. Her characters demonstrate a quality that’s not exactly optimism, but a willingness to carry on, a good natured fatalism that tempers the darkness. The nine stories […]



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