This was the book I wish my younger self knew existed! The way Audre Lorde spoke about anger and pain in relation to the black woman felt unbelievably affirming. I needed that. My ancestors continue to show me the power of their words, which can not or will never be quantified because it is outside of those human defined bounds. 

I loved the southern setting of this book. This book explores facing difficult decisions and idealizing people in the past. This book has many content warnings such as gang violence, racism, violence, childhood abandonment, loss of a parent, child gun violence. The MC is grappled with two parts of himself. He views himself as two different men because he spends so much time separating the different parts of himself, trouble has no choice but to follow him. I often had to stop reading this book because I bracing myself for unspeakable violence. I found the pace of this book to slow and wish it was a bit faster. 

Overall, I like this book. I have many thoughts on how Kia, the MC wife felt about his dealings and the trauma he put on her family. It felt familiar and I felt anger because of it.

Wow! This book was so challenging and covered so much. The lessons that were in each chapter were vital to survival and generational trauma. Learning about the plight of the black woman and it being overshadow by black men enraged me while reading this book. The sexual violence was difficult to listen to in this books listening to the author’s end remote at the end of the book broken and had me crying big girl tears. 

If you don't feel seen, open, and ready for action, you are not reading Kaur's work right! 

These stories, specifically about Marie Catherine Laveau drew me in. I was at the end of my chair for all of the stories. The one about the god essential being a mule had me laughing. The audiobook of this book was fantastic!

This was a very interesting read. 

While reading this book, my first by this author, I was reminded of so many of the parallels of this world in comparison to our current world. It is not a hard leap to make that comparison. I hope that while non-POC are reading this, they think of the complexity of hate. The theme of hate presented itself in a multitude of ways in this novel. Maryse was a character that you could easily get behind. However, her character development in this book was some of the best I've seen. Particularly to her ability to understand how her destiny fueled something in her that she did not necessarily agree with. The repeated referral to the Kluxes/and or colonizers as "they like places where we hurt." That sentence stuck with me and propelled me into a global reflection of the black experiences. Notice I said "experiences" with the efforts to reduce monolithic dialogues around the black experiences. Maryse referred to the Kluxes as "suffering of monsters in human forms." Wow! That is still sitting with me. There are so many lessons to be learned in this book. I was most connected to the ancestral magic in this book. 

This was a beautifully written story. This is a story about the dangers of genocide and assimilation in my opinion. While reading this I was fascinated with the two MC, Janel, and Morris. Janel is human and Morris is a lab-made person from the Ilori. I was sad, happy, and hopeful while listening to this book via audible. I was not expecting the last quarter of the book to be so beautiful, even in its sadness. Morris's ability to wear his heart on his sleeve was beyond refreshing. It was clear that Janel took more time to process her feelings and the world around her. 

I love the following representations in this book. 
Mental health health
Anxiety Rep
Black Rep 
AI Rep
Fat Rep
Non-binary Rep 

This book came at a perfect time for me. It felt like high fantasy but written in the most beautiful way. I am in love with Alechia Dow's writing and ability to make the reader feels like they are apart of Janel and Morris's story. I loved that the MC romance was not the main plot point in the book.