Simultaneously, this compilation unpacks the contentious relationship that exists between Roisin and her mother, her platonic and romantic heartbreaks, and the cognitive dissonance felt as a result of being so divided among her broad spectrum of identities. It also examines the intersection of queerness and being a femme of color while navigating a white world.

mothers’ is particularly powerful ( when i look in the mirror, sometimes i see them, looking back, eyes droopy, weary from the weight of womanhood, tired of the throes of masculinity, patriarchy, white supremacy, they mourn it too. With that being said, most of the poems just end up lacking maturity and falling into every single postmodern poetry cliche imaginable. I feel that if this were more condensed, without the filler tumblr-esque poetry, it would be a true gem. It's about the abuse enacted by mothers, while considering the history of that abuse; it's about the psychological torture of being talked about but never heard, of not knowing the sound of our own voices because of how long it's been drowned out by others, it's about a deep empathy and respect for abusive parents who have survived so much that you'll never have to go through. There were some stanzas and lines that were just not very good and read more like a tumblr rant than a thought-out piece of work.The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. Fariha Róisín uses her poems as a way to speak about what it’s like to navigate the terrain of colonialism in a brown, queer, Muslim body. I also really loved the artwork, i think the cover and inside art is really beautiful and goes with the book contents really well. It is also a collection that I have gifted because of how beautifully it is written and put together.

Simultaneously, this compilation unpacks the contentious relationship that exists between Ro´isi´n and her mother, her platonic and romantic heartbreaks, and the cognitive dissonance felt as a result of being so divided among her broad spectrum of identities. To be completely honest, so far I find myself finding bits and pieces of her works that are really nice; complimentary in a way. I really hate being so judgmental about poetry because I’m sure this really means something to the poet, but it’s so disheartening to read poetry like this that has no understanding or appreciation of form or rhythm.The underdeveloped metaphors along with the insistence of talking about the same themes that have already been discussed in plenty of other poetry collections before made me give this book only 1 star - it brings to the literary scene absolutely nothing new. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Blaming the "bad white folk" is the same type of discrimination that Roisin herself rails against in this book. such a shame the physical copy of the book is so pretty especially with the blue pages + white text/blue text and with the illustrations but the writing was just so …. Simultaneously, this compilation unpacks the contentious relationship that exists between Róisín and her mother, her platonic and romantic heartbreaks, and the cognitive dissonance felt as a result of being so divided among her broad spectrum of identities.

There have been a couple of recent exceptions, so a while later I requested a copy and I’m so glad I did; it’s the best thing I’ve read this year. I’m 50+ books into my Goodreads Challenge this year and this is easily the best thing I’ve read so far.

It’s a beautiful book full of brilliantly written poems that speak volumes to both your heart and soul. How to cure a Ghost is left me feeling very ambivalent, some poems gave me goosebumps, they felt true and vulnerable and strong while some others felt like they were written by a 13 year old angry person on tumblr. The struggles she faced as a queer, young Muslim woman puts into focus the parallel strife of the everyday brown woman. And 400,000 women were raped ( they were not known and never will be known … r emember us, like you’d remember white death). though some poems were very personal (i particularly liked “rumi” and “self portraiture”), the entirety of the book was distancing, and began to feel repetitive for me at around 30%.