Reviews

Poeta X by Elizabeth Acevedo

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jennnafziger's review against another edition

5.0

This book is just beautiful! It pulled at my heart like no other book has in a while. The struggles of faith, parental control, taking up space, and finding your own voice resounded deeply with me.

lilaezz's review against another edition

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4.0

4,5 stars

I can now say that I really like books written in verse. This book was absolutely beautiful and I got really emotional (which if you know me you know that it takes a lot for me to almost cry when I read a book). I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

karenreader's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

⭐️ horrible, ⭐️ ⭐️mediocre, ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ entertaining, ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ great, ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ excellent

[***The following rambling notes are for me. They may contain spoilers or no information at all.***]

Gorgeous as an audiobook. Lyrical look at growing up, sexuality, religion, and family. The only thing I didn’t like was her mother going from burning her journal to attending a poetry competition in support. Her mother was emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive. I feel that was forgiven way too easily. Overall though, I loved it.

radiantdaydreams's review against another edition

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5.0

This book gave me chills. Every single word, every single poem on every single page told the story of Xiomara, whose pen name is Poet X, hence the title, a high school sophomore who just wants to go down the streets without boys hollering at her, who just wants to be able to escape her mother's strict and overprotective rules, who just wants to write her feelings out on a page. She's helpless -- she can't break free from her over-religious mother who dominates and towers over her every day, making sure she learns her lessons from the bible, forcing her to "be the nun she never was". Everyone around Xiomara expects her to be perfect-- to love church, to be the righteous, never fall in love or date until after college. Besides that, Xiomara has her twin brother to take care of, Xavier, who she only calls "Twin". Twin is a genius, who goes to a genius school, whose skipped a grade. He's their mother's perfect little boy, smart and obedient. If Twin brought home a girl, he'd be praised. If Xiomara brought home a boy, she'd be in trouble. The only way she can escape from everything is by writing poems, letting her feelings pour out onto the page.
This book brought me so many tears, from when Xiomara first fell for Aman, to when she ran away from home. I'm glad the book ended the way it did, with Xiomara and her mother making up, and the Poet X going to the poetry slam.

theshrew's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

futurama1979's review against another edition

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5.0

Disclaimer: I read this book for my MG and YA class.

I think this book is a masterpiece. I think every character, even the small ones, have enough complexity and depth and conflict to be main characters in their own novels. The relationships between all of them and Xio are just fantastically written.

And the book is fantastically written overall. This class turned me on to verse novels, and I think this is the best example I can think of in the entire subgenre. There's a fascinating thing going on where the poems we read function doubly as the narrative and the poems Xio writes WITHIN the narrative, which was super cool to read. They're also just good poems, even outside of the story. "Verses" really stood out to me as this insane work of art.

There wasn't a second I wasn't caught up in this story. Seriously great book.