Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Poet X in Books
May 30, 2019
I've always loved poetry for that reason; especially poetry that plays with formatting - spacing and line breaks and size of stanzas. It's so much more evocative than simple paragraphs of prose. (My favorite poet is probably e.e. cummings, who is rather infamous for unusual formatting.)
Acavedo does similar things, making Xiomara's poetry explode across the page when necessary, and ordering it into simpler stanzas in calmer moments. It's not rhyming, even poetry; this is written slam poetry. And I love it.
Xiomara is Dominican, living in Harlem, with a very strict, religious mother. Her twin brother is gay but not out to their parents; Xiomara is fine with this but knows their mother won't be. Her poems cover her need to protect her brother and herself, both from their parents and from the outside world. She writes about street harassment and questioning God and falling in love with a boy, which is also against her mother's rules. Her poems are at turns heartbreaking and joyous, but always beautiful.
This is an amazing book, and is the second book on my Best of the Year list. I am blown away.You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
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Skwchance (13 KP) rated The Afterlife of Walter Augustus in Books
Nov 12, 2019
The story follows him and the women who found the book, Letty. She is a sad character who you want things to turn out good for.
The theory of the afterlife is fabulous and made me question whether I would want to stay there forever and be remembered or if I would want to risk moving into the final afterlife.
The characters made me want to shake them into being braver at times but are endearing. The plot is a bit crazy but there are lots of laughs and it is very creative.