Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire

5 reviews

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.75

I would read other reviews because I didn’t fully understand or follow some of the poems so I will reread another time at a better head space. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, War, and Death of parent

satanne's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Racism, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Violence, War, Suicide, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Death, Abortion, Rape, and Sexual assault

m_storky's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Warsan Shire has an unparalleled ability to write poems that are beautiful and damning at the same time. Whether she is addressing the ripple effects of intergenerational trauma or celebrating existence, Shire expresses so much in so few words. Her poems about the immigrant experience in this collection ultimately resonate the most. They resonate even moreso than her still-excellent observations on femininity and family dynamics; though the latter topics are those for which Shire is more well known. Anyone who feels that they don't understand why someone would ever leave their country of origin ought to read her poem "Home." I'll leave you with a brief excerpt from that so you can witness Shire's powerful words for yourself:

"I want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark. Home is the barrel of a gun. No one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore. No one would leave home until home is a voice in your ear saying—leave, run, now. I don’t know what I’ve become."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexism and Colonisation

czidya's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

3.5

This collection was a mixed bag, but where it was good it was outstanding. Shire's writing is richly symbolic as it deals with challenging topics like abuse, misogyny, and the experiences of refugees. At times I found the imagery so dense it was impenetrable- unfortunately many of the poems left no impression on me at all because I couldn't really make sense of the verbal collage. However, Shire gets the balance right more often than not, creating lush emotional poems that share a fraught but profound relationship with God and religion, as the collection's title suggests.
My favorites of the collection:

• Filial Cannibalism
• Midnight in the Foreign Food Aisle
• Bless the Camels
• Hooyo Full of Grace
• Joyride
• Backwards

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death and War