Book Review: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Pero, tú no eres fácil

I picked up The Poet X because I was looking for something different from what I usually read. I didn’t care that much for the story, but it was interesting.

Book Review: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Rating:


Title & Author: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Genre: Contemporary, Poetry
Release date: March 6 2018
Series: Standalone
Publisher: HarperCollins

Synopsis

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

I give The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo four out of five hearts because I thought it was well written and interesting, but I just didn’t care.

This is not a novel that I would read again. For most of the novel I didn’t even know whether the main character was female or male and what their name was (I hadn’t read the synopsis before starting the audio book)

Xiomara is stuck in a world where she has to do whatever her mother says (go to church every day after school), instead of following her heart (doing more with poetry). The poetry is beautiful and I did like that about it. Of course in the end everyone sees how great she is at poetry, but it does take the entire book. In her poems she can confess to her feelings and think all the things that are important to her. Her mother is hanger over her shoulder, completely missing the fact that her sun is gay (which is way more dangerous when you are so deep into the church).

Overall I think it is a good book, it just wasn’t for me.

Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.

For now, let books enrich your life!

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