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nerdinthelibrary 's review for:
The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
content warnings: misogyny, slut shaming, sexual harassment, violence, parental verbal abuse
representation: fat dominican main character, gay dominican side character, dominican side characters, latinx/hispanic side characters, jamaican side character
“Burn it! Burn it.
This is where the poems are,” I say,
thumping a fist against my chest.
“Will you burn me? Will you burn me, too?
You would burn me, wouldn't you, if you could?”
Literally the only thing I didn't like about this book is that I read it in physical format because my stupid library doesn't have the audiobook. Other than that, I loved everything.
Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel is a beautiful exploration of sexism, faith, feeling alone, being unheard, and finding your people. The protagonist, Xiomara, spends the entire novel battling with the fact that she wants to take up more space than she does; she wants to be heard, wants to be respected, wants to be her own person. But her religious mother has other ideas of what her daughter should be and because of that Xiomara feels like she can't breathe.
So she turns to slam poetry, which is the form the book is written in. I was worried that that aspect would make it difficult to read, as someone who isn't really into reading poetry, but it didn't take long for me to get into it. The poems aren't fragments in the way that poetry collections are; these are poems that are telling a complete story. Again, I wish I had listened to the audiobook because Elizabeth Acevedo, who is herself a renowned slam poet, narrates it and everyone who's read this book talks about how fantastic it is.
Something you need to know about me is that I love a good, complicated mother-daughter relationship, and this book has that in spades. In fact, this book is just full of incredible, complex, messy relationships: Xiomara and her mother, Xiomara and Twin, Xiomara and Aman, Xiomara and Caridad, Xiomara and Ms. Galiano, Xiomara and religion, Xiomara and slam poetry, Xiomara and her sexuality.
Everything about this book is messy and raw and beautiful, and I absolutely loved it.
representation: fat dominican main character, gay dominican side character, dominican side characters, latinx/hispanic side characters, jamaican side character
“Burn it! Burn it.
This is where the poems are,” I say,
thumping a fist against my chest.
“Will you burn me? Will you burn me, too?
You would burn me, wouldn't you, if you could?”
Literally the only thing I didn't like about this book is that I read it in physical format because my stupid library doesn't have the audiobook. Other than that, I loved everything.
Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel is a beautiful exploration of sexism, faith, feeling alone, being unheard, and finding your people. The protagonist, Xiomara, spends the entire novel battling with the fact that she wants to take up more space than she does; she wants to be heard, wants to be respected, wants to be her own person. But her religious mother has other ideas of what her daughter should be and because of that Xiomara feels like she can't breathe.
So she turns to slam poetry, which is the form the book is written in. I was worried that that aspect would make it difficult to read, as someone who isn't really into reading poetry, but it didn't take long for me to get into it. The poems aren't fragments in the way that poetry collections are; these are poems that are telling a complete story. Again, I wish I had listened to the audiobook because Elizabeth Acevedo, who is herself a renowned slam poet, narrates it and everyone who's read this book talks about how fantastic it is.
Something you need to know about me is that I love a good, complicated mother-daughter relationship, and this book has that in spades. In fact, this book is just full of incredible, complex, messy relationships: Xiomara and her mother, Xiomara and Twin, Xiomara and Aman, Xiomara and Caridad, Xiomara and Ms. Galiano, Xiomara and religion, Xiomara and slam poetry, Xiomara and her sexuality.
Everything about this book is messy and raw and beautiful, and I absolutely loved it.