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julsmarshall's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Powerful, evocative, mythical, and smart, this mixture of essays and poetry will have me thinking for a long time. Mouton is the Poet Laureate of Houston and she shares stories of her time there but also growing up in Los Angeles and Michigan. There is a real sense of place and memory in this book and the #audio is fantastic, narrated by the author.
lit_vibrations's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
Another great memoir has been added to my list of favs‼️ I won this gem in a giveaway last year and wish I read it sooner. Morton’s memoir was so engrossing, well-written, and like nothing I’ve ever read before. She used a magic/mythological approach that I loved so much.
“Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity in Black Mythology and use it to fill in the gaps in literature that colonization has tried to steal from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets. This, a truth that must start with the women.”
Throughout the book Mouton explores themes surrounding womanhood, family, growing up black in America, her childhood, motherhood, sexual harassment, and so many other things. She tells her own story while remixing myths and drawing on traditions from all over the world.
Like one myth we’ve all heard before mothers having eyes in the backs of their heads. I remember rolling my eyes once behind my mothers back and her immediately saying do it again and see what happens all while never turning around to acknowledge me. Couldn’t tell me she didn’t have eyes in the back of her head lol.
Overall, this was an amazing memoir definitely recommend y’all give this one a read. There were a lot of personal stories presented that many readers can relate to in one way or another.
lesliebean's review against another edition
5.0
In Black Chameleon, Mouton brings forth a novel and interesting addition to the memoir genre; she weaves together creative nonfiction and magical realism to seamlessly switch between describing events in her own life and imagined additions to them and then to original fables/myths that she has created pertaining to the specifically Black American experience (as opposed to the experience of a non-American Black person). I found her prose lyrical, beautiful, heartbreaking, hard to read at times, and overall well worth reading. Would recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley to providing me an ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley to providing me an ARC.
fkshg8465's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
Lots of powerful poetry mixed with parables and mythologies written to create this picture sorrowful and continuously fierce memoir. She manipulated language in a most beautiful and spellbinding way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Racism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Abandonment, Bullying, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, and Sexual assault
classysassreads's review
5.0
Now the way she tells stories was amazing that I was hooked from the first story all the way to the end.
_maddsharks_'s review against another edition
fast-paced
4.0
This was such an interesting take on memoir, mythology and story-telling. Very graphic at times, but also so creative and intriguing. I felt like I was in the character's body and feeling the same sensations. Really beautiful.
morganstarks's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Racism, Gun violence, and Physical abuse