Reviews

Tonguebreaker by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

rainisfallingdown's review

Go to review page

challenging hopeful inspiring sad

4.0

mxjayharley's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

greeniezona's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

lsparrow's review

Go to review page

4.0

I tend to rebel against things that I feel I am supposed to like. This is how I always feel when I pick up Leah's work - however I cannot help but eat up the words, I like it despite my attempt to resist - to take the journey, to embrace the language. pain and resilience - honoring ourselves and our ancestors.

sunflowers_and_storms's review

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

ruda_'s review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

half_book_and_co's review

Go to review page

5.0

One hundred forty pages and every single one moved something in me, hit some spot, made me think. This book dedicated to all femmes who struggle is a collection of poems and performance pieces. Here disabled working-class queer brown and Black femmes are centred; their dreams, futures, relationships. This is a book about suicidal ideation and surviving – and also the ones who did not survive. It is a book about queer and disabled ancestors; and a lineage drawn from the ones passed away decades ago to the newly disabled finding their place. This book is a love letter and a prayer.

“Disability is adaptive, interconnected, tenacious, voracious, slutty, silent,
raging,
life giving”

The texts are sorted in six chapters: femme futures, sacrum, bedlife, rust will cut you, ritual payers: performance texts from mangos with chili, cripstory. These chapters sing to each other and echoes can be found throughout the book. And I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that this book is so slim but I could write many, many posts about it. I will certainly go back to this collection again and again, rereading different texts.

“When I hear us dream our futures,
believe we will make it one,
We will make one.”

Books I also read by Piepzna-Samarasinha and absolutely loved: “Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice” and “Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement” (edited with Ejeris Dixon)

zaraven's review

Go to review page

emotional reflective

4.0

leavingsealevel's review

Go to review page

4.0

So much to think about here. I love her writing always but this challenged me and made me uncomfortable in ways that her other collections haven't (which is a good thing).

churameru's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective

4.0