katharina90's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
A strong debut.
I didn't connect with it as easily as I did with Postcolonial Love Poem but I enjoyed the themes and language used.
"Why I Hate Raisins" stood out, as did many of the poems about addiction.
I didn't connect with it as easily as I did with Postcolonial Love Poem but I enjoyed the themes and language used.
"Why I Hate Raisins" stood out, as did many of the poems about addiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Colonisation
vexatiousbird's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
3.5
I loved Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poems, but I didn’t like this collection as much. A lot of flying into wild and elaborate metaphors that I wasn't crazy about, and a few that I just didn’t understand. Her use of language is still beautiful and heart-wrenching, but I had to skim more than I wanted.
kiperoo's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. This was amazing. I'll definitely be re-reading this collection.
sagehaviland222's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
wellreadandhalfdead's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
logbook's review against another edition
5.0
When My Brother Was an Aztec is a major allegorical work full of allusions, both concrete and symbolic. It includes prose, complaints, confessional poems, Díaz's take on a dirge or two, and opening epigraphs. The collection has it all but somehow flows effortlessly. And considering that both Goodreads and Scribd suggested it to me solely because of my interest in spoken word (which Díaz does not engage in), it is wild and refreshing to see a collection where every single piece employs intentional enjambments and end-stops, as well as vivid imagery/symbolism that is coherently defined. It is by far one of my favorite poetry collections in a few years; it had the power to make my heart swell and shatter, all at the same time.
m4tr1m0ny's review against another edition
favorites:
"When My Brother Was an Aztec" (When my brother was an Aztec / he lived in our basement and sacrificed my parents /every morning. It was awful. Unforgivable. But they kept coming / back for more. They loved him, was all they could say.)
"Mercy Songs to Melancholy" (Your gray guitar / is my sister--the hole in the chest / gives you both away.)
"Downhill Triolets" (And again / our dad, our Sisyphus, pushes his old blue heart up to the station.)
"Soirée Fantastique" (Someone should have told her it was rude / to chase my brother in circles with such a shiny shovel. / She only said, I'm building the man a funeral. / But last I measured, my brother was still a boy.)
"Orange Alert", "A Wild Life Zoo".
"When My Brother Was an Aztec" (When my brother was an Aztec / he lived in our basement and sacrificed my parents /every morning. It was awful. Unforgivable. But they kept coming / back for more. They loved him, was all they could say.)
"Mercy Songs to Melancholy" (Your gray guitar / is my sister--the hole in the chest / gives you both away.)
"Downhill Triolets" (And again / our dad, our Sisyphus, pushes his old blue heart up to the station.)
"Soirée Fantastique" (Someone should have told her it was rude / to chase my brother in circles with such a shiny shovel. / She only said, I'm building the man a funeral. / But last I measured, my brother was still a boy.)
"Orange Alert", "A Wild Life Zoo".
yinflower's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse and Body horror
Moderate: Racism, Violence, and War