This book has so much--I just finished it and I feel sort of drained and drawn out, in a good way. The love in it is really palpable, and the horror aspects are just gut-wrenching and beautiful and hard to sit with--not in a graphic way, just in a 'gets into your bones' way. This is one of those books where I wish I had more to say that was convincing, but I loved it. It took me a second to get into it (it kind of throws you in the middle at the beginning and then reels back, and that is hard for me) but by the end it's just so much and so tender. Every character in it is just so complex and I love all of them, and the questions Starla asks about that love, as she's trying to heal and is also being hurt, are so, so... much and so important to me right now.

I will say first that I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publishers for the opportunity to read this.

This was sort of fun in a big-time tropey way, even if it wasn't fully my thing. The crime-solving and the magic seemed to sort of conflict and crash into each other; I feel like magical crime-solving feels a little different than regular crime-solving and I wasn't sure what to do with that. The romance was super supernatural romance tropey as well, and

if soulmate AUs are a thing that interest you, you'd love this book,

though they're not exactly my thing. But overall the world is pretty intriguing, and it moves medium-fast (there's a lot of infodumping but it's presented fairly well, I guess?) I think if you like supernatural romance and mystery, you'll really like this book a lot; it's mostly not my genre, but it's not a bad book by any means.

Really beautiful and deeply generous. Dawn's poetry is cutting and tender at the same time, and the prose pieces here are really beautiful and invite the reader to sit with her (in some cases literally!) The movement across these aspects and times of her life give a good arc while also really just settling in with what it means to be older than you ever thought you would be, and what that can look like. The last piece about her wife was a really incredible and tender one to end on, and I'm really grateful to read it from where I'm sitting now. Just lovely.

I will say first that I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

This was a really interesting read--I'm far more familiar with settler colonialism in north and central America than I am with it in Australia, so this was an interesting and fairly welcoming introduction into Aboriginal literature. It feels dream-like in some places, and some of the sensory details, especially from Tilly as she starts to kind of emerge from her trauma. It's really beautiful, though I got nervous in the last third. I'd say if you're new to indigenous literature altogether, this is a really solid place to start--like I said, it's approachable, and it balances trauma and recovery really nicely.

Just incredible; Vuong tells this story with such tender care for all involved, and the language is of course stunningly beautiful while also being absolutely wrenching and at times deeply painful. This is one of those books I can't review properly, but just insist you read (and read his poetry too!) There are so many parts of this book I want to tuck away into my chest and just hold for a while. So go out and read it, please, thank you.

Just really incredible, beautiful poetry--the form made me feel sort of grounded, and there are so many lines that are so beautiful--Amber Dawn does an amazing job of weaving the lines she's used in between her own work in just really remarkable and awesome ways. If you, like me, are a person who feels like you struggle to read poetry, I think this really helped me feel like I understood how to approach the poems in ways I normally don't. Even if you feel more at home in poetry, though, you should read this.

Just incredible, obviously. Even when they contradict one another, each piece is just so rich and powerful. Cherríe Moraga's introductions to the sections, especially talking about lesbianism as an orientation towards women and how that made her a feminist, are breath-taking, and Audre Lorde fucks me up every time in the absolute best ways. Some of it maybe might seem dated to people, or the historical context might mean you miss some things (I don't know that the editor's added notes giving that context are honestly all that helpful in this regard,) but regardless, it's absolutely a required read and I want to go out and buy copies of it for every single woman I know.

Really really beautiful--which seems like a fake weird thing to say, but for a book as long as it is, it really sucked me in and I finished it so quickly because I had a really hard time putting it down. There's just so much about htis book that is beautiful--her tender attention to detail in the surroundings of the characters, the characters themselves and their relationships to one another... really is just breathtaking in so many ways, and hit me at a right time.

Just incredible. The pairing of each poem with the epigraphs is just incredible, and each poem is like a snippet of being in the past. "Jump/Rope" is just incredible, probably my "favorite" poem of the collection--it's cutting, like a punch in the chest repeatedly, but also tender. Each poem is really like that though, drawing together this vivid picture of Chicago and Black Chicago in particular before, during, and after the race riots. Strongly recommend, and honestly definitely usable to teach students more about the riots.

I AM SCREAMING ENDLESSLY.

Once again, this book was so good, gripped me pretty fast; I think the middle went a little slower, but by the last one hundred pages I could not put it down. I don't want to spoil the ending of it, but it made me want to read the next one IMMEDIATELY. It sets things up for the climax so well, while also being a solid and compelling story in its own right. The writing is so incisive and powerful. Really, really enjoyed this and can't wait to see how the story finishes!