Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Poet X

I absolutely loved this. This was truly a beautifully written peak into the life of a young Biracial woman. Her coming of age and dealing with sexism, religious trauma, her mother's expectations and abusive language. Coming to terms with who she is and not letting anyone silence her even her mother. This was hard to read and so heartbreaking beautiful to experience. I am happy that I got to read this and even more so that I got the audiobook to hear this book directly from the author.

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august69's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

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beckyyreadss's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I wanted to read this book as I'd seen so many good things about this author and I wanted to dive into her work, so I thought I would start with Poet X and it did not disappoint.

This book is based on Xiomara Batista and she feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighbourhood. Ever since her body started to grow in curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers – especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her biology class who is called Aman, who her family can never know about. Her Mami is determined to force her daughter to obey the laws o the church, so Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. But she gets invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend with Mami finding out, much less speak her private thoughts and feelings out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

I love this book. It's a brutal book, but I loved it. I wanted to protect Xiomara with my life. I wanted more, I wanted to see if Xiomara and Twin could break out of their mother’s clutches. I wanted to see Twin happy and Xiomara happy. This book is heavily based on religion and Xiomara rebelling against it (which is perfectly fine – what her mother did was not). I think the way this book is presented as a bunch of poems made it a very easy read. I felt like it was going to lose some of the storyline doing that, but it really didn’t. It managed to keep you intrigued and the storyline flowing.

I don’t personally there is any weaknesses so to say about this book, I just think the ending was a little rushed, I would have loved to see the relationship with her and her mother grow if she wanted it to and to see her friendship develop with the Slam kids, but overall, I thought it was an interesting read and I would love for another book to be made from Xavier’s point of view and see him find his way in the world.

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