Cover of Boy, Snow, Bird
Historical FantasyFairy Tale RetellingsMyth & Legend Fiction

Boy, Snow, Bird

by

  • 2014 first published
  • 308 pages
  • ★ 3.7 (7 ratings)
  • 9 editions
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Published in 2014, Boy, Snow, Bird is a historical fantasy and fairy-tale retelling novel by Helen Oyeyemi. The story is set in Massachusetts. It deals with fairy tales, adaptations, family secrets and stepmothers.

Open Library readers give it an average of 3.7 out of 5 from 7 ratings, and 34 more have it on their want-to-read list. It has been published in 9 editions.

It runs to roughly 308 pages — 5–6 hours of reading at an average pace.

About Boy, Snow, Bird

This novel is a reimagining of the fairy tale Snow White recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity set in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty, the opposite of the life she has left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she would become, but when the birth of Boy's daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white, elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out . Now Boy, Snow, and Bird must confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. -- From book jacket
Description from Open Library

Themes, setting & tropes

Genres

Setting

Subjects

  • Fairy tales
  • Adaptations
  • Family secrets
  • Passing, Identity
  • Stepmothers
  • Identity
  • Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
  • Ethnicity
  • Personal Beauty
  • FICTION / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
  • City and town life
  • FICTION / Literary
  • Folklore
  • Historical fantasy
  • Fairy tales, adaptations
  • New york, N.y.

Quick answers

Who wrote Boy, Snow, Bird?

Boy, Snow, Bird was written by Helen Oyeyemi and first published in 2014.

What genre is Boy, Snow, Bird?

It is usually shelved as Historical Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retellings, Myth & Legend Fiction and Fae & Fairy Fiction.

How long is Boy, Snow, Bird?

The median edition has 308 pages, about 5–6 hours of reading at 250 words per minute.

What books are similar to Boy, Snow, Bird?

Readers who like it often enjoy Circe, Thumbelina and Kate Greenaway's Original Drawings for The Snow Queen.

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