Oh, man, did I ever love this book. A young adult novel written in the first person by a teenage poet--who writes the whole book in poems? Yes indeed.
The timing was excellent, coming off of January's report that young people, including teens and Millennials, are returning to poetry in droves. It's exciting to think that they're turning to poetry too, and that an author thought to use poetry as a communication vehicle, and a publisher like HarperCollins saw the potential and brought it out.
The story is told by Xiomara, the twin daughter of Dominican Republic immigrants, who has poetry running through her veins. She keeps it a secret, not sure what she thinks about being a poet, and already aware that her mother thinks Xiomara's twin brother is the genius and special one in the family. But the poems she writes and memorizes look at all aspects of her life, from her awareness of what it's like to be a curvaceous female in high school, to wondering if God is real and whether her mother would even accept it if Xiomara doesn't believe in God, to feeling the difficulties of first love, especially when your super-strict mother is absolutely paranoid that you're going to end up pregnant and alone, and thus makes your life really hard when it comes to normal teen things like dating. And then there's that pesky teacher who keeps pushing you to come to Poetry Club.
These poems are fun, exhilarating, moving--I even teared up a couple of times. It's quite a feat--the author has created poems that are accessible and read as if they were written by a gifted teenager, but still hold up as poems. But the book also moves with the pacing of a well-written novel. I felt utterly satisfied by the end, and yet I can't say I'd be disappointed if Xiomara decided to write the next chapter of her life for a follow-on.