what is not yours is not yours by helen oyeyemi

Radha is the first person who can understand her. Gepetta used to be a human woman who took care of the puppets at the school, but as she became ill from a plague, the puppets she cared for switched her body parts one by one until she became a full puppet. Radha, who is used to speaking with a ghost in her room, helps the puppet tell her story: The puppet is a woman named Gepetta and is not haunted, but alive. In her audition, Radha’s finger puppet only wants to eat sugar cubes and sleep, so one of the student mentors, Gustav Grimaldi, brings her another puppet, claiming it is haunted. At the audition, Radha meets Tyche Shaw, whose puppet is a porcelain chess piece that only asks, “Is your blood as red as this?” (111). Radha asks Myrna to train her in puppetry so she can join Myrna at her school next year. “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” follows Radha Chaudhry, who is in love with a young puppeteer named Myrna Semyonova. Aisha feels that he is getting closer to identifying his mistake and should keep trying. Afterward, he gives multiple impassioned apologies to the woman he assaulted and to his fans. Tyche and Aisha implore the goddess Hecate to make Matyas genuinely sorry.

When Aisha plans to attack Matyas, Anton enlists the help of Tyche. Matyas releases a song and music video as an apology, which seems insincere to Aisha. Aisha is obsessed with a pop star named Matyas Füst, who is accused of assault. Anton has two stepdaughters, Dayang and Aisha. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” follows a man named Anton who house sits for his friend Chedorlaomer, a famous singer, and works in his aunt’s sleep weight loss center with a woman named Tyche Shaw. Montserrat sees a door in the library that leads to a secret rose garden. She is accused of murder, so she runs away, leaving the letter for her baby. The priest says he’s been dead for a day, but Aurelie insists she just spoke to him. Later, Aurelie and the priest find Isidoro dead. Fearing his death, he asked Aurelie to find a priest to marry them. She found the key to the library, where she met Isidoro Salazar. Aurelie worked at the Salazar house and became pregnant by a young man who left her. When Montserrat’s key fits the library door of the Salazar estate, a lawyer gives her a letter from her mother, Aurelie. She meets an artist named Señora Lucy, who also wears a key given to her by a woman she once loved, Safiye. “Books and Roses” follows an orphaned young woman, Montserrat, who wears a key around her neck that was left for her by her mother. Each story has a unique plot, though a few characters appear in more than one story, implying a shared world. The collection comprises nine short stories.

Content Warning: This guide references misogyny and violence against women.

What is not yours is not yours by helen oyeyemi