A review by dandelionnetwork
Unraveling: Poems by Brandon Leake

3.5

 

He is an America's Got Talent winner and their very first poet winner. This is his debut poetry collection. His poems cover topics ranging from his experiences as a Black man in the US to his internal personal struggles within himself to his relationship to his religion (Christianity I think?). He also code switches between Standard English and AAVE (African American Vernacular English).

Some of the poems got me in the heart, others were solid. He reused the imagery of strange fruit at least 7 times; when you're reading the collection in one sitting it feels incredibly repetitive and distracting.

A solid 3.5/5 for me. It's an okay read; respectfully a good collection to start with as a newbie to poetry. I'm gonna keep it in my collection.