Brittany Johnson

I really wanted to like this book, but it fell a little flat. I liked Amala's growth and characterization. Kha'dasia stayed too combative for too long after she should've learned that resisting only causes more problems. The relationship felt fast with not enough space for it to grow from infatuation to love. The tasks the girls had to complete seemed disjointed. It's not a bad debut novel, but i think it could have spent more time in editing.

I appreciated the vulnerability and rawness of this collection, even as I felt Johnson didn’t always possess the skill to fully execute her ideas. Many of the poems that stood out to me were her shortest, so I’d be interested to see a collection that focuses more on short poetic forms. All in all, this was a decent debut that certainly showed Johnson’s potential to become a consummate poet someday.