Lau's debut collection of poetry is thought-provoking and creative in many ways. Lau has a beautiful working of the English language twisting the meanings to meet her needs. With themes of sexuality, home, race, and family, Lau produces a collection that is both deep and lyrical.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is, without a doubt, the best poetry collection I have come across on netgalley so far. (Thanks for providing me with a copy for an honest review)

Every single poem is packed with lively references to affairs such as pop culture, politics, social issues and religion - I'm not sure if it was my age or a political alignment but these were absolutely on point for me.

The verse is so beautiful and stand-out that I regularly had to read sections out to my husband because I couldn't even just sit on them alone. I feel like the writer opened her heart, experiences and life to me.

Whether discussing heritage, sexuality, immigration or emotion, each poem is individually sublime. They are zany and sophisticated, open minded and expressive.

I would love to teach some of poems to some of my older pupils.

Absolutely blown away.

I loved hearing from this perspective and the poems themselves were relaxing and had lovely flow. Every poem made me think and gave me ideas.

I usually don’t enjoy reading poetry but this book opened my eyes to how beautiful it can be. This book is a collection of poems by Grace Lau covering multiple different topics.

The writing was absolutely beautiful and it felt close to home in some of the poems. As soon as I read the title, I instantly fell in love with this book and after reading I can proudly say that my love has only grown!

Thank you so much Netgalley for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review!

A beautiful collection of poems that guide us through various themes like identity being a second-generation immigrant, sexuality, identity and cultural influences.

Really love all the various topics discussed. The poems are really intriguing. I love how they bring some true things from our world come through.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book to review.

I really enjoyed this series of poems written by Grace Lau. The themes are really appropriate for current events in the US and I would love to incorporate some of her poems in my high school classroom.

The examination of self that Grace describes is relatable to many Asian Americans: first generation, teens, and adults alike.

Overall, I recommend it.

Lau has a beautifully lyrical style of writing. She includes a few experimental pieces in the mix that go perfectly with the collection. It shows being a queer Asian immigrant in a way that lets every person understand without experiencing it. I was moved by a lot of the poems and I think it's a great exploration of identity and family relationships.

This was a nice poetry collection, but I didn't feel like I could connect with most these poems in a deeper level. Grace Lau has an interesting writing style and a lot of her poems read mostly like a narrative. My favorite poem was "In the Name of Love" and probably the only one that stood out to me:

We can't always / own /
what we love.

We fear death / so we name it /
Afterlife. But no matter how many name we give death /

it is still / not ours.

This is a really nice book about the author's life. It revolves around a Chinese family of immigrants living in Canada, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community. I've read it in a morning. If you're looking for a short and easy book to read and good poetry, this is the one for you. Rating: 3/5 stars.

This poetry collection delves into the intersecting themes of faith, race, sexuality, capitalism, immigration, and family. Grace Lau, a first generation Chinese-Canadian poet, has chosen both deeply personal poems and poignant social commentary to make her debut. The results are engrossing.

I was specially moved as Lau stunningly juxtaposed her grief at not being able to repay her family's sacrifice, and her pain over her family's rejection of queerness. The complexity of these feelings is perfectly captured in "My Grief Is a Winter'. Other notable poems include "Solidarity", "Pedicure at Pinky's", and "I've Hung Dead Flowers".

Grace Lau's collection is beautifully crafted to illustrate the richness, joys, and burdens of her intersecting identities. This debut is well worth it and highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Guernica Editions for granting me early access to this book.

The absolute gorgeous and painful sapphic longing in these poems! Such an incredible collection and I’m so glad I had the utmost privilege of reading them. I cannot wait to hold these words in my hands and probably cry some more.

A beautiful incredible and inspired collection for every pining sapphic out there.

I really wanted to love this one but unfortunately, it did not bring out the emotions I was expecting.
First off, the collection of poems begins with RuPaul's drag show which 1. I do not care for, 2. I could not see the relevance of it in this collection., 3. for a first poem, and therefore a first impression it did not spark any emotion.

This is a debut poem collection by Chinese -Canadian Grace Lau living in Toronto. Her whole collection is among others, about queerness, acceptance, being in the closet, family, immigration, food memories and love. But some pieces that were dealing with completely different themes such as God and spirituality threw me off completely and I think did not do the overall collection any good.

What I did enjoy, however, was the one prose that was found in this collection, which was both poignant and ironic; just enough to spark my interest. I think I would have wished to see more of this. I talk about the 21st-century hustle culture. Other pieces that stood out for me from the rest were: The Lies That Bind, At Your Best, My GRief is a Winter, and My Body is a Vessel.

Final note: the Chinese words would be have been nicer to be explained in a footnote on the same page instead of at the end of the book.

This collection is full of active metaphors to draw you in. The depths of intersectional experience portrayed were simultaneously strange and familiar, as I'm LGBTQIA like the author but not someone ethnically diverse enough to experience a racial identity other than white. I had to comb through these poems twice before I could put the book down and write up a review, because it really grabbed my imagination and made me want to write some poetry of my own.

Side note: On the poetry that handles LGBTQIA experiences, we aren't forced to only experience the traumas of being queer. Media often portrays us (and other minorities) solely around how trauma affects us, and this collection did a good job of rounding out the picture of life as a queer person.

Overall, this collection was nice. Nothing particularly stood out to me and the language wasn't especially poetic. I enjoyed the intertwining languages in some poems, but several pieces seemed disjoined.

The publisher kindly provided me with an arc through netgalley.

This was a lovely autobiographical poetry collection with a variety of different topics such as race, sexuality, culture and religion. I felt this collection was very straightforward and honest and it didn't try to be flowy or whimsical which a lot of poetry does.

It kept me turning the pages and intrigued and it was just a really lovely read. Would highly recommend also for people who don't generally enjoy poetry.

The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak by Grace Lau is a wonderful poetry collection that explores many intersections of identity while also being a love letter to the society that shapes us outside of who we are. The short length both of the individual poems and the collection as a whole made this very digestable and enjoyable. The writing was enjoyable and fresh, unlike other poetry collections which can be clunky or hard to read. I particularly enjoyed how Lau discussed religion and cultural identities (especially in conjunction with queerness) and her take on Killing Eve.

an amazing collection of poems!
it was really funny but also dealt with quite important topics like being queer and not being out etc.
I really liked it and looking forward to reading more works from this poet/author.

I absolutely loved this collection of poems. They were inspiring, relatable, and made me think about my own feelings. I loved the pop-culture references. Grace Lau really made a set of really unique stories.

I received an e-ARC from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak is a gorgeous debut poetry collection focusing on identity, heritage, language, pop culture, queerness, religion and family.
There were so many evocative turns of phrase and beautiful writing that I found myself wanting to highlight entire poems. It is a fairly short collection, but very cohesive. If a book could represent a whole person, this would be close. I love lyrical poetry that makes me feel like I'm meeting a new person, and this collection did that for me.