“Late into the night I write and the pages of my notebook swell from all the words I’ve pressed onto them. It almost feels like the more I bruise the page the quicker something inside me heals.”

The Poet X is one of two books I’ve ever read that spoke volumes of my soul. I related to Xiomara’s experience so much that my heart ached and tears spilled down my cheeks.

The story is about an Afro-Latina girl from Harlem who writes poetry to express her thoughts and feelings about her family, question religion, explore sexuality, and experience the many firsts for a sixteen year-old girl. For the majority of the novel, Xiomara is caught between her Mami’s weighty cultural/religious expectations of what a good girl should be and what she wants to be.

The amount of rawness portrayed within the pages of this book is just ...phenomenal. Elizabeth Acevedo explores and navigates through Latinx topics that are often left in shadows. I appreciate and commend her for it, and I honestly cannot wait to see what else she has in store for the world! There aren’t enough stars for this book so I give it the entire sky!

Original Reaction:
ALL THE STARS.

MY HEART WAS BROKEN AND PUT BACK TOGETHER IN A SPAN OF A DOZEN PAGES.

*will review when I am more coherent and not so in my FEELS*