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bryceemanuel 's review for:

Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair
4.5
challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5 stars! 

I thought this was a very sharp collection. I think that Sinclair has a targeted message, but plays around with a lot of different topics within the lens that is set within the context of the entirety of the collection. Using Caliban and the imagery of the cannibal as a standard by which to recontexualize her perspective as a woman, a Carribean, and immigrant to the United States. 

Pieces that I like are “Home”, “Fisherman’s Daughter”, “Mermaid”, “Family Portrait”, “Autobiography”, “Another White Christmas in Virginia”, “White Apocrypha”, “Notes on the State of Virginia, III”, Elocution Lessons With Ms. Silverstone”, “Litany For Charlottesville”, “Good Hair” “Woman, Wound”, “”Woman, 26, Remains Optimistic as  Body Turns to Stone”, and “Little Red Plum”. 

I think that both deconstructs and synthesizes the perspectives by which she examines in the collection, inextricably tying things like feminism and colonialism into a new lens by which to better capture the personal
emotions and experiences that someone of said experience might more feel more akin to.