Reviews

Homie by Danez Smith

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winter_b's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad

Another beautiful collection by Danez Smith reflecting on love, loss, friendship and (chosen) family.

Content Warnings

futurememory's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

I thought I'd participate in The Sealey Challenge this year (read a book of poetry each day for the entire month of August), and soon realized that I was going to fail, utterly at the challenge. I'm not typically a poetry reader. I loved it as a teen, but I never really explored it in depth as an adult, beyond what was required reading in my English major classes.

I'm happy, though, that the Challenge exposed me to poetry like Danez Smith's, because boy, can I find no fault with any of this. This is a slim book, but exceedingly well-intentioned. The entire book as a package has a wonderful metaness of playing with the form of a book itself - from the real name of this collection, to the acknowledgements at the back.

And the poems... many of them are gutpunches, uniquely written and told for a Black queer audience. Smith's use of language, of evocative turns of phrase, of breaks and double meanings and of his culture, his life, his loves and his heartaches... everything is here.