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A review by sapphirebubble_
The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom by Nikita Gill
5.0
Nikita Gill is my favourite poet of, possibly, all time. Her poems never fail to stir up emotions in me that swirl around into a cyclone, leaving new parts of me exposed and to build upon.
Her new collection of poetry and stories — The Girl and the Goddess — is especially close to my heart because it draws heavily from Hindu mythology; highlighting it's women and trans people, which we often leave behind. It gives us a small girl in a big city, the terror of sexual violence that femme people experience in India, queerness which is seen as "non-Indian" and it's erasure, how it persists, our often misguided beliefs that everything will be better in a Western country and so much more. It touched upon many aspects of my childhood — the relationship with and love we experience from our grandparents, how bigotry persists in our society, the "log kya kahenge" syndrome, the anxiety that life and school induces, the feelings of being othered constantly as a queer (bisexual, in this case) person and so much more. Every line in the book is crafted with such care, beauty, sadness and joy; that it is impossible to take your eyes off of it. It focuses on partition and it's lingering effects in today's world; and discusses Kashmir with a careful hand. It made cry and made me happy in so many little ways, and gave me a sense of self and confidence with its progression and ending.
Find me elsewhere: Blog | BookTube | Instagram | Twitter | The Story Graph
Her new collection of poetry and stories — The Girl and the Goddess — is especially close to my heart because it draws heavily from Hindu mythology; highlighting it's women and trans people, which we often leave behind. It gives us a small girl in a big city, the terror of sexual violence that femme people experience in India, queerness which is seen as "non-Indian" and it's erasure, how it persists, our often misguided beliefs that everything will be better in a Western country and so much more. It touched upon many aspects of my childhood — the relationship with and love we experience from our grandparents, how bigotry persists in our society, the "log kya kahenge" syndrome, the anxiety that life and school induces, the feelings of being othered constantly as a queer (bisexual, in this case) person and so much more. Every line in the book is crafted with such care, beauty, sadness and joy; that it is impossible to take your eyes off of it. It focuses on partition and it's lingering effects in today's world; and discusses Kashmir with a careful hand. It made cry and made me happy in so many little ways, and gave me a sense of self and confidence with its progression and ending.
Find me elsewhere: Blog | BookTube | Instagram | Twitter | The Story Graph