As an English teacher, I spend a lot of time being told to tell teenagers that the "only" important West African author is Chinua Achebe. Having long believed that Benjamin Oke and Sole Woyinka prove that wrong, I was delighted to find The Icarus Girl, and in it, a lovely, slightly scary story about a Nigerian/British girl. It is more Western than most "Africa" books; more African than most English books. In all, it is a delight, and I look forward to reading more from the same author.

I'm not sure how much to say about the plot of The Icarus Girl. It's not hard to figure out what's really going on in the story if you give it some effort, so it's not like I'm giving wild spoilers or anything. But then again - what about those readers who would like to know as little as possible going in to a story like this? I guess I'll try to skirt the issue as much as I can, but if you're planning on reading this and want to remain untainted by anything resembling a spoiler, now is the time...

Like almost everyone else, I was not satisfied with the ending, but marvel at the fact that Helen Oyeyemi was only 18 when she wrote it. Had everything somehow come more together in the end, I would have given this book 5 stars. Regardless of the ending this book is definitely worth reading and I look forward to discovering more books from this author!

Oyeyemi wrote this whilst still doing her A levels at the age of eighteen! It is an interesting exploration of a troubled child looking at imaginary friends, mental health vs normalcy, identity, twins, loss and conflicting cultures. Ambitious for a first novel. It revolves around Jessamy Harrison the child of a Nigerian mother and an English father. She is eight years old. Jessamy is quite precocious for her age, but she is also prone to difficult behaviours. Whilst in Nigeria Jessamy meets a fr...

okay, so the ending - who knows - but the rest of the book had a lot of enjoyable writing. it's true it was predictable and there were some inconsistencies, but then i realized she was 17 when she wrote this, so i forgave the flaws.(so magnanimous, i) it would have been 4 stars, but that ending.... but i have her other novel so i'll read that, and the new one is out soon and i'm sure that they will be more mature but still retaining the "good bits" from this first one.come to my blog!

I didn't go to sleep the night I finished this novel. I got into bed and attempted to read my chapter or two and ended up reading until I was done...at 5 o'clock in the morning! Every time I finished one chapter, I had to read the next and then the next. But nothing ever happened...other than extreme creepiness due to the main character, 8 year old Jess's evil-creepy alter ego/spirit/imaginary friend of the same age. I had way too many questions when this story was done. I mean, I like it when t...

While this debut novel is certainly an impressive achievement for an 18-year-old writer, it's hard to escape the conclusion that purely on its own merits as a book, it's rather flat. Apparently partially inspired by the author's own troubles as a child, the story centers on the psychological problems of 8-year-old Jessamy. The lonely only child of a Nigerian woman and English father, she lives in the suburbs of Kent, England, and we meet her for the first time as she hides in a linen closet. The...

Not my favourite of Oyeyemi's work, but then again - she wrote this while studying for her final highschool exams (I can barely string a sentence together on deadline at the moment, with no exams in sight) and the writing is beautiful and strong in equal measure. The only problem is the plot, which has a tendency to tangle in on itself without quite getting anywhere. Even the ending is a little flat - it needs something more, if not explanation or resolution then at least more dreaminess, more u...

Mind-numbingly boring. Bailed a quarter of the way in.

3.5 stars. Jessamy is 8 years old, half-English and half-Nigerian and has a friend named TillyTilly that no one else can see. TillyTilly wreaks havoc on Jessamy's life and the lives of those around her. I liked this book, but I also felt confused by this book. I came to this title because it was described as having a lot to do with Nigerian fairy tales. The moment I finished reading this book, I fired up google to find out what I could about Nigerian fairy tales, which was not a lot. So that unf...

My final feelings about this book couldn't be any farther from where they started. I selected this book as one of the latest piles for a speed-dating project, and after 50 pages I wanted to put everything else aside and immerse in the story. The writing of the young girl Jessamy and her mysterious friend grabbed me - it felt new, different, fresh.Somehow along the way it grew tiresome. I think perhaps the idea made a better short story and it just seemed stretched out, the ending was not very sa...

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |That Helen Oyeyemi wrote her debut novel aged 18 while studying for her A-Levels is certainly an impressive feat. And, as debuts go, The Icarus Child is by no means a weak one. As this happens to be the third book I’ve read of hers I can see just how much her writing has grown since The Icarus Child. The story’s surreal atmosphere is certainly one that permeates most of her works, but perhaps here the fantastical elements aren’t as mind-boggling as the ones charact...

If you believe there is a fine line between madness and psychic abilities this is a fascinating look at one troubled young girl's life. Well worth the read even if you don't hold those beliefs.

This is an exquisite examination of the mind of an imaginative child, with just hints of otherness around the edges. The child and her thought processes are amazing – and Oyeyemi’s ability to maintain a certain ambivalence is remarkable.

It has taken me way longer than it should to get through this 320 page book. I just couldn't do it. I lost interest 100 pages into it, not because it was boring but because it just wasn't engaging. I didn't form any attachments to the characters, I didn't look forward to picking it up in my free time to continue reading, and i'm not at all curious as to how the plot will pan out (Ok maybe just a little curious, but not enough). Although i do have to say that even though i wasn't so invested in i...

3.5 stars, rounded down for the ending, which felt too rushed and a bit too inconclusive!I have shelved this as horror, as it certainly contained some very creepy and downright scary scenes. On the one hand, it's a story about a half-English, half-Nigerian little girl coming to terms with her feelings of not fitting in. On the other hand, it's a dark dark tale incorporating some seriously terrifying mythologies. This book was written when the author was still at sixth form, and taken in that con...

This book is brilliant. What Oyeyemi manages to accomplish here is nothing short of wonderful, especially when reminded that this is her debut novel and she wrote it at 18 years old, in college, while studying for her exams.It is not often that a book manages to worm its way so deeply into my brain, but this book does. Going in, I was honestly expecting a book focused on mythology (Nigerian? Greek? I wasn't sure), with some magical realism sprinkled throughout. This is, in fact, actually a truly...

I wanted to love this book. The themes of duality, sisters/twins, and cultural identity were engaging, but it seemed like these were never fully explored, despite the length of the book. The author, Helen Oyeyemi, spends over 300 pages drawing readers into her story, inviting them to wonder what kind of entity is at play with the main character, Jess/Wuraola. Jess is the nine-year-old daughter of a Yoruba, Nigerian mother and an English father. Jess is an exceptionally clever child, but has not

I am not sure what it was about this book that didn't engage me. I have to admire the fact that it was written when the author was in her last year at secondary school. And there is some very good writing in this novel. But somehow the book just misses the mark.The premise is interesting, if familiar, and suited to magic realism. A highly sensitive and imaginative child divided between cultures (the Nigerian of her mother and white British of her father) goes visit her grandfather in Nigeria whe...

I didn't follow every single thing that happened in this book but it was okay? I was pretty into it, so even if some of its magical bits clunked around, I let them.I was entirely unprepared for how scary this was. It isn't a horror book at all, but a lot of scenes are genuinely frightening! I did a lot of the reading at bedtime, in the dark in a strange house. I loved it but wow.I impulse-bought this at a stoop sale just before leaving Brooklyn, even though I was on a strict no-new-books packing...