Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans

Some trigger warnings are rape, SA, and murder of a trans woman.

"Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America--and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman."

Read it in one sitting and then re-read it again on a different day, that time deliberately taking it slow and letting everything set in. I loved the poems and how it told a story, giving detailed information of what has happened in the past while also focusing on the present. It can be triggering for some if you don't know that it is coming in this collection of poems, so definitely read all trigger warnings if possible. Beyond proud of her for telling her story and being so incredibly brave for sharing it with everyone. It's so important for her to tell and discuss these topics, you know there are individuals out there that will find solace and comfort in her words, knowing that they are not alone. Healing and understanding will definitely come this collection.

I feel like this should be on a school syllabus. To be able to deep dive into the meaning and the hidden themes in the individual stanzas, it would be amazing to be able to break it down to fully encapsulate and appreciate how beautiful, deep, and meaningful this book is. A lot of the poems were conversational, emotional, but that she spoke to the reader as a peer. The flow chart at the end connecting the poems and the train they follow is extremely helpful and a fun way to showcase her writing process.

Comments

The Whisper Man by Alex North

"If you leave a door half open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken. If you play outside alone, soon you won't be going home. If your window's left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass. If you're lonely, sad, and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you." After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his son Jake get a fresh start in a Featherbank by purchasing a new home. Unbeknownst to him, Featherbank has a terrible past. A serial killer abducted and murdered five local children, nicknamed "The Whisper Man", because he was luring children out of their homes by whispering at their windows and doors at night. As soon as they moved into their new home, another young boy was abducted in a way very similar to the whisper man and Jake begins hearing whispers at his window. Detectives Pete Willis and Amanda Beck are trying their best to find the boy before it's too late. Even visiting Frank Carter, the original whisper man, i...

The Sanatorium (Detective Elin Warner #1) by Sarah Pearse

"Grief is like a series of bombs exploding, one after another. Every house, a new detonation. Shock after shock after shock." Le Sommet is a horrible place, surrounded by local legends and rumors, the once abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium has found its second life as a five-star hotel. It is as imposing as it is beautiful, and being high up in the Swiss Alps makes it a remote get away. It's also the last place Elin Warner wants to be stuck, having taken a leave of absence from her work as a detective, decides to brave the journey. Especially when her estranged brother and his fiancée reach out and invite her to celebrate their engagement. She arranges in the middle of a terrible storm with her boyfriend, already on edge when they wake the following morning to discover her brothers fiancée has gone missing. Elin is thrust into the case when everyone gets stormed in and the police aren't able to access the hotel, making the guests panic even...

The Necromancer's Library (Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #12) by J.L Bryan

"We all have our little gardens of dead dreams, don't we? And sometimes we still try to water and tend those gardens, long after we should know nothing will ever grow there." In this installment of the Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper series, the team is sent to investigate a potential haunting at an antebellum mansion in the middle of the countryside. A pair of sisters currently reside there because the previous owner, a deceased reclusive professor, hired someone to transform his massive collection into some semblance of organization. The oldest sister Cherise is a university student who is cataloguing the entire collection. The issue is, it's a collection of ancient and medieval manuscripts and items. The library and mansion are filled with terribly haunting spirits-both helpful, lost, and frightening. Even when exploring the grounds they come across an eerie family cemetery in the overgrown woods and run into a figure trying to communicate something seriou...

Bethany's Book Nook

Search This Blog