If I Had the Wings was a mixed bag for me. Helen Klonaris' writing is very stirring, the metaphors and language she uses can invoke a lot of feeling within a reader. As I went along in the book I found the stories grew on me and in my opinion got better (as well as longer). All of the stories in If I Had the Wings dealt with either someone in the LGBTQIA community, someone questioning, or someone just trying to find themselves within their local community. All of Klonaris' stories take place within The Bahamas, and some of the stories Klonaris used as social commentary for the attitudes and prejudices displayed towards LGBTQIA people in The Bahamas. Not all of the stories I enjoyed, in some the metaphors or imagery used made it hard for me to follow what was supposed to be going on within the story. I think some plot was sacrificed for the moral. Magical realism is injected into some of the stories and I enjoyed those ones the most. Either way, Klonaris shows family conflicts and pressures from family and society in a Bahamian way.