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ecster's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Emezi's poetry is everything I imagined it would be after reading all their other books. I must re-read this collection, in depth.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content
honeyvoiced's review
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Rape, and Self harm
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Biphobia
clara_mai's review against another edition
3.0
I love Akwaeke Emezi's novels Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji and their memoir Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir, not least due to their stunning writing and vivid imagery, so my expectations for their poetry collection were quite high. After reading all the poems in this book I can say that generally, I enjoy the concept of the collection, particularly the series of poems in which the lyrical self is related to the holy family (mary, jesus, joseph, magdalene all appear), more than the actual pieces. Having read their memoir, most of the content of this collection, which is as far as I understand mostly autobiographical, is familiar. I once again felt a deep admiration for Emezi while reading, because they express their identity as well as their traumatic experiences so boldly through art. At the same time, while I found individual lines and images to be striking, many of the poems left me without any particular feeling or a lasting impression. Others that dealt very explicitly with heavy content did certainly leave an impression because of said content but the writing, the poetic technique didn't really. Exceptions for me are self-portrait as an abuser, which is masterfully crafted and extremely effective and the first and last poem of the collection (both part of the "holy family cycle"). All in all this is good, but I would rather recommend Emezi's prose if you've never read anything by them. Lastly, I want to add that I'm really no expert when it comes to poetry, as I don't really write it myself and haven't thoroughly studied it (especially not in English) or even read much of it. This is all just a very subjective take of my experience reading this collection.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail
eslsilver's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Medical content, Rape, and Medical trauma
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