Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón

8 reviews

buttermellow's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexism

Minor: Animal death, Racism, and Racial slurs

words_and_coffee's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Racism

Minor: Alcoholism and Drug abuse

blueteacup's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective

5.0

Ada Limón is a brilliant poet who’s a master of conveying strong emotions through imagery.  In her poem “The Last Move” she compares herself to a woman’s body in a water tank, describing how the faucet would spurt or gurgle, to convey feelings of isolation and losing a part of herself when she moved from New York to Kentucky. 

Her descriptions of the bluegrass of Kentucky, old horses, death in her family and other strong concepts made each poem feel unique but similar.  Almost every poem lured you in with an interesting concept, then shattered you with a powerful last line. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Cancer

Minor: Racism

bashsbooks's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

Limón's poetry is sometimes brain-sparking and illuminating and sometimes a boring slog. I can't quite put my finger on why - I think at times she doesn't accurately balance how much description the reader needs to see where she's going. A lack of images gets fuzzy and vagueness is hard for the mind focus on. That said, I felt that the poems became clearer and her work altogether more understandable the further I read, so perhaps it was intentional.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Animal death, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Classism

jazhandz's review

emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Racism

jayisreading's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

Limón explores broad themes of loss, grief, love, and hope throughout this collection with such tenderness. Her poems are straightforward and grounded—maybe a little heavy-handed at times—but the simplicity of them opens up the opportunity for the reader to really bask in their affectivity.

Some favorites: “How Far Away We Are,” “I Remember the Carrots,” “Downhearted,” “What It Looks Like to Us and the Words We Use,” “Relentless,” “Oh Please, Let It Be Lightning,” and “Lies About Sea Creatures”

Read for the Sealey Challenge.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Drug abuse

skudiklier's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.75

God this was so good. I feel like I have a lot to learn from Ada Limón, and how well she writes seemingly "simple" poems. So many in this collection were absolutely gorgeous. I'm definitely coming back to this again later. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Racism

spinesinaline's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

This was so very good. Fuller thoughts to come

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Animal death

Minor: Drug abuse