Scan barcode
thistle_and_verse's review
4.0
A solid issue. I usually don't know what to make of poetry, but I really enjoyed the poems in this issue; "Umake: God of Hair" was inventive, "Bury Me With My Bonnet" had imagery I found oddly soothing considering the subject matter, and "Unbraided, Clean" was mournful and sweet.
"No Late-for-School" was a horror story where the main villains weren't terrifyingly malevolent as much as they were trifling, cowardly, and opportunistic - which made them uniquely frustrating and dangerous. I really liked the braiding magic system in "When Dragons Claim the Sky." I hadn't seen anything like it before, and I hadn't considered the ways hair could be threatening. I would love to see more adventures in this world. "In That Place She Grows a Garden" and "My Snakes" use magic and surrealism to push back on the ways Black hair is regulated and degraded.
"No Late-for-School" was a horror story where the main villains weren't terrifyingly malevolent as much as they were trifling, cowardly, and opportunistic - which made them uniquely frustrating and dangerous. I really liked the braiding magic system in "When Dragons Claim the Sky." I hadn't seen anything like it before, and I hadn't considered the ways hair could be threatening. I would love to see more adventures in this world. "In That Place She Grows a Garden" and "My Snakes" use magic and surrealism to push back on the ways Black hair is regulated and degraded.
More...