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lizziaha's review against another edition
4.25
I took a long time to read this one because I felt like I needed to sit with each poem for a while. I think I might enjoy more with a more in-depth reread. But the language is beautiful: soft in places you don’t expect, just jarring enough to keep you on your toes, slowly heartbreaking—so slow that it’s hard to identify when exactly the breaking occured. Or maybe it had just always been there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
shimmery's review
5.0
This floored me. Danez Smith is an exceptional poet articulating intelligently and powerfully life as a young, gay, HIV positive black person. Anything I could write about this collection would be reductive as the poems manage to do and be so much. They mourn a cruel reality while imagining a better one. They protest while making peace. They are filled with both haunting and beautiful images. Smith is a true wordsmith; their handling of language is masterful. Nothing much else to say but: read this book.
ashction's review against another edition
5.0
not a new review, i read this 2+ years ago but apparently didn't log it!
hannahrose_99's review against another edition
4.0
cleothegreat's review against another edition
5.0
‘paradise is a world where everything
is sanctuary & nothing is a gun.’
is sanctuary & nothing is a gun.’
cowboyjonah's review against another edition
!!!!!!
My favorites were "summer, somewhere", "at the down-low house party", "bare", "recklessly", "everyday is a funeral & a miracle", and "tonight, in Oakland"
Very imaginative and thoughtful collection🩵
My favorites were "summer, somewhere", "at the down-low house party", "bare", "recklessly", "everyday is a funeral & a miracle", and "tonight, in Oakland"
Very imaginative and thoughtful collection🩵