A Fire Like You (ARC review)

I requested A Fire Like You on one of my whimsiest whims while perusing Netgalley, and was oh-so-lucky that it worked out. 

A Fire Like You takes on complex topics that I haven’t seen explored often (or at all) in poetry: poverty, a depiction of a home that isn’t the worst but that wasn’t wonderful and a family who wasn’t always perfect but that tried their best, racial prejudice and what it feels like to be a black woman in this world. The most interesting of all, to me, were the discussions on poetry itself and how the form often feels like it necessitates wallowing in dark times and re-experiencing past trauma in order to create it. Chisala questions why we feel this way, and discusses how dangerous a path that can be for the poet to always focus on the worst times of life just to create emotional verses for their audiences.

I loved the uniqueness of what this collection covered and how there weren’t just love poems (although, the section entitled ‘swoon’ delivered some of those too). And it had the writing to match the power behind the words. 

While reading, I had no overall criticisms with the book. However, although there were a handful of poems that I loved, the majority were just middle of the road. The more ambiguous the poems got, the better I liked them, while there were some that just seemed too simplistic with only one or two lines. But, obviously, poetry is a very subjective and emotional thing, and there will be plenty of people who feel the exact opposite. 

What I can say is that I think a cleaner progression from start to finish would only have served to strengthen this book. The poems stay on topic for their sections for the most part, but I thought that with just a bit more re-organizing, the collection would have shown a clearer story from beginning to end. 

I rated A Fire Like You 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrew McMeel for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!