angelreadsthings's review against another edition
4.0
This collection gets four stars not because I enjoyed it but rather because I found it exceptionally necessary. Sapphire's writing is brutal, harrowing, and unequivocally real. She sugarcoats nothing, imbuing her work with all the anger and ugliness that the situations possess when experienced in real life. At the same time, she manages to write of horrible and traumatic experiences in sometimes beautiful ways which makes the ugliness of the situations cut more sharply. I believe this collection offers great insight into what it can mean to be a Black woman, a survivor of sexual and physical assault, a woman loving woman, and a creative person among other things and recommend it for those reasons with the caveat that this whole book deserves a long list of trigger warnings (most notably for intense descriptions of rape, physical abuse, misogynoir, and strong references to suicide).
laurelinwonder's review against another edition
5.0
This is a collection of poems, stories, and performance pieces that deal with a huge range of emotions. It is at once about trauma, incest, rape, and sex work, but also recovery. Sapphire has a voice you cannot ignore, it's authentic, and cracks open sentences and parses in a way that means we the reads cannot look away. Just powerful.
itsbradleycole's review against another edition
4.0
This was one hell of an emotional roller-coaster. There is so much pain behind the words Sapphire uses. My favorite line from her works is:
“I don’t quite know how to get free
of the karma I’ve created
But I can see clearly now
That I have created my life”
“I don’t quite know how to get free
of the karma I’ve created
But I can see clearly now
That I have created my life”
chidseyca's review against another edition
5.0
Raw, disturbing, and incredibly powerful read. Probably should not have read it in one sitting - it was painful and uncomfortable at times, but an equally compelling read. Not for the faint of heart.
More...