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jayisreading's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
This is a rather short collection of poems in which Jackie Kay explores transracial adoption and identity. This seems to be loosely based on Kay’s own life, having also been adopted by a white family in Scotland. The first part of the collection is told through three perspectives, each one following a particular typeface: the biracial daughter, the birth mother, and the adoptive mother. All three voices come together to reflect on how adoption impacted each of them, which inevitably reveals the complexities of familial relationships. I thought Kay approached all of this with incredible empathy.
I felt that the second part was a little weaker, only because it seemed less connected to the collection to, instead, focus a bit more broadly on Scottish life as a queer biracial woman. It was a little harder to parse out who was narrating and what the intentions were for most poems. I still found many of them thought-provoking, but again, I couldn’t quite figure out how any of it connected to the first part of the collection, which had a clearer message.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Death
Minor: Kidnapping and Suicide
will_meringue's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness
Moderate: Death, Police brutality, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Infertility, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Child death
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