skudiklier's Reviews (647)

I have a confession to make; I read "Forfeiting My Mystique" and maybe one or two other poems by Kaveh Akbar, and then immediately started naming him as one of my favorite poets. "Forfeiting My Mystique" is very good, and years later it is still one of my all-time favorite poems, but still, I feel like I probably should have read more of his work before now. However, having now read this whole collection, I am happy to say that it's only confirmed that he's one of my favorite poets. I genuinely loved every single poem in here. So many of them blew me away. I know I'll come back to read them again and again. I could not recommend this book enough. 

Lauren Poole's poetry is amazing! She finds a way to write beautifully about every emotion and topic, and her journey is really inspiring to read about. I can't wait to read more of her work.

In Consequences of Flight, Pei Ja Anderson brilliantly twists grief, defiance, and nostalgia into a tone all her own. She crafts stunning imagery without falling victim to clichés--instead she turns them on their head and into something new, raw, and spectacular. She takes on themes of loss, femininity, adoption, love, and race, all in her uniquely intense and lyrical voice that will leave you breathless and aching for more. Her deeply honest poems smart of betrayal without turning bitter, and trace hope and longing without ever verging on saccharine. With opening lines that will knock you off your feet and never give you enough time to get back up, Pei Ja Anderson's Consequences of Flight is an unforgettable experience from start to finish.

I am reeling from this book. It's wild and big and weird and fascinating and I'm probably going to think about it for a long long time. It's somehow both very different from the first book, and also about the same core issues--just like, more fleshed out. What you get when you take those thoughts further. I will never not be in awe of Hank and these books.

Edit: After I wrote this review, I talked about the book with a friend and realized I had some problems with its resolution. So for the last two years I've been very sure that while I liked this book and series a lot, I liked the first book better. But I just finished my first reread of the book, and have some thoughts. I think it's just that there's one specific thing I find dissatisfying about the resolution, and aside from that I think this book is amazing. ABFE has a lot of things I find really useful and interesting, and I'm glad I reread it so I could appreciate it more. I like that these concepts are more fleshed out in this book than in the first one, and I think Hank really got where he was trying to go. 

The beginning of this book was very difficult for me to get through; if I wasn't asked to read and review it for a specific project, I likely would have given up attempting to understand it. However, roughly halfway through the book suddenly clicked for me, and I sped through the rest of it. I think it's a really engaging, important, and well-thought-out book. I just hope people like me (who may be discouraged in the beginning) keep reading through to the end.