From Publishers Weekly
The story of a troubled eight-year-old haunted and ultimately possessed by family secrets, this spooky debut novel from a 20-year-old Nigerian-born Cambridge student is sure to garner attention for its precocity and literary self-consciousness. The sensitive protagonist, Jessamy Harrison, born to a British father and Nigerian mother, writes haikus and reads Shakespeare, but regularly throws tantrums and avoids social interaction both at school and at home. As an intervention, her parents take her to stay with family in Nigeria for the summer. At her grandfather's compound, she encounters TillyTilly, a mysterious girl who seems to know everything about Jess and who, Jess realizes, is not visible to anyone else. In Nigeria with TillyTilly, Jess finds a sense of belonging and intimacy for the first time, but when Jess returns to England, TillyTilly becomes less comforting and more troublesome. In confident, heavily stylized prose, Oyeyemi illustrates Jess's cultural dislocation, using both Nigerian and Christian imagery to evoke a sense of her unreality. As sophisticated as she is, Jess's eight-year-old observations provide a limited lens, and at times, the novel's fantasy element veers into young adult suspense territory.
Agent, Robin Wade. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–This first novel, completed before its author turned 20, uses elements of Yoruba and Western myths to create a tale of psychological horror with echoes of both Henry James and Stephen King. When British academic star Jessamy Harrison is skipped ahead a year in school (to the pride of her English father and Nigerian mother), the nervous eight-year-old finds the change difficult. Unable to make friends or to cope with teasing about her mixed-race status, she breaks down in screaming tantrums and is prey to odd, feverish illnesses. During a family trip to Nigeria, Jess is elated to make her first friend, a fey girl nicknamed TillyTilly who is devoted to her–and who may be invisible. Delight turns to anxiety when Tilly reveals a shocking secret, and then to horror as she demonstrates her capacity for cruel magic. Is Tilly real? A spirit? An extension of Jess's personality? The creepy ambiguity persists until and beyond the disturbing denouement. Related entirely from Jess's perspective, the book perfectly captures the fear and confusion of a child confronted by inexplicable circumstances, although thinly drawn other characters and a somewhat repetitive structure make it less than a total success. Still, Oyeyemi is a talent to watch.
–Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
