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nvillanuevadrv's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Police brutality, Violence, and Racism
avisreadsandreads's review against another edition
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Slavery, Child death, Death, Police brutality, Violence, Hate crime, and Grief
lydiajines's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Racism, and Police brutality
itsanniek's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Police brutality and Racism
Moderate: Slavery
mattyvreads's review against another edition
4.75
This piece is a sort of extended poem which illustrates her experience as a Black woman in America, including micro-aggressions carried out against herself, her friends, and Black female athletes like Serena Williams who faced casual racism in their sport that had huge consequences.
I am eager to read this book again, as to soak up even more of Rankine’s words. She is an icon.
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Police brutality
Minor: Classism
sairywhy's review against another edition
4.25
Moderate: Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, and Death
rieviolet's review against another edition
2.5
Honestly, I understood maybe a third of what I read and while that is certainly on me, it really hampered my fruition of the book and the general appreciation of the reading experience.
I also struggled with the final section in verse and most of it went over my head. I admit that I am not a devoted poetry reader and, when I actually read it, I am usually drawn to a more prose-like and matter-of-fact type of poetry.
I think a book like this is just too much experimental for my personal taste. However, I did appreciate the section focusing on Serena Williams and the racism she experienced in her career as a tennis player, it might be because it was the part that more closely resembled a traditional and straightforward essay.
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
Moderate: Violence and Hate crime
Minor: Blood, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Death, Vomit, Murder, Rape, and Cancer
eve81's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Racism, and Misogyny
krhe's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
savvylit's review against another edition
5.0
As I tend to do when reviewing poetry, let me leave you with a fragment of Rankine's own words:
"You are you even before you grow into understanding you are not anyone, worthless, not worth you. Even as your own weight insists you are here, fighting off the weight of nonexistence. And still this life parts your lids, you see you seeing your extending hand as a falling wave— I they he she we you turn only to discover the encounter to be alien to this place. Wait. The patience is in the living. Time opens out to you. The opening, between you and you, occupied, zoned for an encounter, given the histories of you and you— And always, who is this you? The start of you, each day, a presence already— Hey you—"
Graphic: Gaslighting, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, and Racism