Review: The Poet X

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

When I initially requested this one I didn’t realise it was a novel in verse. I normally don’t like novels in verse at all. I’ve never been a poetry person at all, really. The only novel in verse I have read I didn’t like much.

 

That being said, however, this book just blew me away. I completely loved it. It took a bit of getting used to the style of the poems. Every page more or less had its own poem, and those poems told the story. The words were just so…incredibly powerful. I don’t know how else to describe it.

 

Xiomara’s voice was just amazing. I can’t even begin to relate to Xiomara’s circumstances, but her words were just mesmerizing. Her mother is a deeply religious woman who seems to want Xiomara to follow in those footsteps. In her parent’s eyes X’s twin brother Xavier can do no wrong. He’s smart and goes to a special smart kid school different from X’s high school. X’s only friend seems to be her church buddy Caridad whom she has known forever. Forced by mom into taking confirmation classes at church X isn’t really into it. She starts to have questions.

 

She’s not allowed to date, and because of how she looks she often gets picked on by boys and has become very tough in defending herself. Yet when she’s paired with a boy in her bio class she starts to notice things about him, they have similar tastes in music and start to get closer and bond. Into a more than friendship thing.

 

Which she knows if she gets caught will raise hell with her mother. Her struggles with her desire for the boy and fear of her mother echo in her poetry. She wants to do normal things and doesn’t think kissing a boy is wrong. It’s not. But her upbringing tells her differently.

 

And then her English teacher mentions a poetry club. She’s noticed X has promise in her writing. But poetry club clashes with confirmation class. X rarely shows her poems to anyone. (Her poems are awesome! I can’t say enough times how much I loved the pure, raw power of this girl’s voice).

 

Of course before long things go wrong. And it’s just heart breaking. After everything this girl goes though, at one point she just stops talking to everyone she knows when her trust is betrayed. I felt so bad for her. I just wanted things to get better. The pain in her silence comes through in such anguish. Yet she gets the chance, finally, to make her voice heard, and it’s just wonderful.

 

There’s so much emotion packed into this book, the characters. It’s just such an amazing story. There are not enough ways I can say how much I loved this novel.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Egmont Publishing for approving my request to view the title.

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