⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

This novel has been on my shelves for a VERY long time and on my radar for even longer. It's about Xiomara, a 15-year-old girl with a fiery attitude and a passion for writing, living with her absent father, overbearing, conservative mother, and identical twin brother, who couldn't be more her opposite in terms of temperament. She receives a notebook as a present from her brother and starts writing her thoughts and feelings in the form of poems. Everything from her feelings towards boys in her class, the sexual harassment she received while walking around her neighbourhood, her thoughts on religion that definitely do not align with her mother's, all things she keeps to herself and fears her mother will find out. It doesn't help that her teacher is encouraging her to get involved with a Spoken Word club and a Slam at the end of term.

I thought this was an excellent novel for teenagers, it was an interesting format, much different from most YA I read when I was that demographic and since. The characters are very well developed, you can see they each have their own position, goals and values and they come across very well in the dialogue and their actions. It's such a empathetic and raw look at the kinds of things that teenagers are going through and thinking about now.

This is one of the best YA books I've read. It's mature but age appropriate, challenges the norm and shows you how there is a support network if things don't work out, even if it doesn't seem like there is. This is definitely a book I'd be recommending to my teenage relatives or daughter down the line.

Did you go through an angsty-teenage poetry phase or was it just me?