Reviews

Salt by Nayyirah Waheed

bluelishi's review

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2.0


if i
wanted
tumblr poetry
i
would
submerge myself
within the
depths
of
edgy
teens


-extra star for content

kate_in_a_book's review

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reflective

4.0

robinsversion's review against another edition

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2.0

While this is more coherent and comprehensible than “stream black books” (well, for the most part) and contains some powerful and beautiful poems about race and racism, the author still, well, to put it nicely, has a way to go in terms of properly expressing her ideas and viewpoints on the world. In one poem she insists her “english” is “broken on purpose” to make the reader have to put in the work to read and properly understand her, but it honestly just reads as more of an excuse for her flimsy and failing attempts at creating a “concept” piece. She needs to focus way less on creating new (or in her words “pre”) forms of “art” and much more on being able to handle even the basics. Even at the best of times, her poems just felt massively incomplete.

ljutavidra's review

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3.0

Poeziju sam uvek smatrala za nešto što se opire ocenjivanju, jer je ili doživiš ili ne. Ovo bi sad moglo da potegne celu diskusiju i o ostalim vidovima umetnosti i zašto bi išta uopšte i ocenjivali. Ali da ne filozofiram, evo ukratko mojih misli o zbirci.

Savremena poezija je vrlo jasna. Ima tu poneka metafora, ali nije ovo Dučić i čas srpskog jezika gde vas profesorka smara da analizirate jedan stih 45 minuta.

Pa ipak nisam oduševljena. Bilo je dosta uopštenih mesta, nešto što bi svaka iole pismena tinejdžerka mogla da osmisli i okači kao opis slike na instagramu. Opet, da se razumemo, nekome je to baš ono za čim traga i to je skroz legitimno. Al' nije po mom ukusu.

palmpages's review

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5.0

The journey
The beauty
Life!

These poems did what they were written to do; evoke an insurmountable amount of emotions. You cannot help but feel proud in knowing that black is beautiful; you are made of stars and moonlight.

Also therein, are notable reminders about self-love; it is imperative before you share any part of yourself.

I enjoyed the profundity in the simplicity of her writing.

nezi's review against another edition

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reflective fast-paced

3.75

forgereads17's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.0

shuuuuu's review

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5.0

Beautiful, heartbreaking, affirming, full of truths. Would definitely re-read!

evermoreliterary's review

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4.0

Powerful ideas, feelings, and emotions masterfully packed into so few words. I really enjoyed this.

bookswithmaddi's review

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I got this book two Christmases ago, I picked it up a couple of times but never read all the way through it. I knew it was powerful from the few poems I read from it but I don't think I realized how important it is until I read it all the way through. At first glance, this book might seem like a quick read, there are only a couple words on each page, and it actually can be, but I don't think it's supposed to be. I took my time reading this, feeling each word and letting the power and importance of them settle with me. I took notes on some of the poems and placed my thoughts on post-its beneath the poems. I would highly recommend doing this. I find that it helped me connect better to the poems and allowed me to express my thoughts about them.

The one word or phrase I remember writing the most often was, "this is IMPORTANT". There was really no other way to put it, some things in this book are just important. The book covers such a broad range of topics and issues and does it with eloquence and dignity. Each word of each poem is specifically chosen, it's evident the time she put into this book. I often see words seeming rushed or poems feeling incomplete in poetry books, and some poems are so short it's easy for this to happen. But I did not find that this was the case at all with this book. It seemed so carefully written, and all I can say is that it's important. It's full of words and sentences I'm too afraid to say, it's full of truths we'd often like to sweep under the rug. It's IMPORTANT, especially in this day and age.