On the inside cover description, it essentially says (I’m paraphrasing) that Nin crafted a collection where some of the poems have a quiet force and others are loud. I could not agree more. This collection speaks on queer love, the effects of colonialism and heteronormativity, speaks on Angola, Blackness, and complications of the immigrant experience. I need more people to read this one and thank you for the gifted copy Astra House books!

It has been a long time since I read this book, and I'll be honest--I don't remember much about it. The poetry is fine. There are some strong lines and stanzas that come back when I look back over it. However, it wasn't strong enough to stick with me. The themes were stronger, and I could recall many of those after all this time. I will recommend it to people who are looking for multicultural poetry.

How does colonialism affect people. How does a person explore the trauma connected with it? Where does joy and pain connect and how does a person navigate them? Queerness and love and connection... these poems are a glimpse at Nins experience in all of these areas, so beautiful.

In their daring and evocative debut, Aaiún Nin leaves absolutely nothing left unsaid. Theirs is a fiercely political poetics which centers the Black Queer experience and names the many violences committed by Western governments in the name of Christianity, “progress”, and the status quo. Where other writers would dance on the line between truthful testimony and placating respectability, most likely due to a reflexive need for self-preservation, Nin forges a path of their own through a tangled web of desire, trauma, history, and their personal immigrant experience—in their case, one that has been rife with racism, homophobia, and other intersecting axes of oppression.

What Nin refuses to do in Broken Halves of a Milky Sun is cater to an audience that would never listen to them anyway, at least not in any substantive or constructive way. In fact, they anticipate the not all men and not all white people responses and throw it back in the faces of their would-be detractors. This is not a space for the oppressors to have a say. Sit down. They are not accepting questions or comments at this time.

So moved was I by the poems in this collection that when I made it to the end, breathless and aching, only one response would suffice: Amen.

Don't read these poems if you have a hard time fathoming that people might reject your white supremacy or your religion, or maybe do read these poems if you haven't gotten it yet. These poems declare Blackness, Africanness, Angoleseness, queerness, and confront the narrative that white culture and religion should be the dominant/only. The poet does this in ways both serious and lighter ("Find Some Real Chilies" was one of my favorites.) They also embody reclamation of bodily autonomy in a number of ways.

"...what strength we must have to hold secrets inside the body..."

The poet is now living in Denmark in asylum and many of the poems discuss borders and refuge, and the many ways seeking refuge has been made illegal.

BROKEN HALVES OF A MILKY SUN is a poetry collection that pays its respects to those who have died, especially at the hands of a system that refuses to acknowledge racist ideologies, a system that thrives on solving its problems with punishment, rather than building up communities. It forces readers to reflect on the question: what does it really mean to be an ally if you haven’t reflected on the way you’ve internalized white supremacy?

These poems celebrate identities that resist erasure. Poems for those who mourn as an act of preservation. There are also pockets of temporary refuge in-between verses for those who are burdened with heavy secrets, reminding us through language, there is a possibility of release.

Mostly, I found understanding in the poems that declare its love for those torn between two homes and for those heartbroken and enraged.

My top favorites in this were “Tell Me of the First Time You Were Poisoned” and “Souls Wandering Around Chained to a System.”

Sadly, there wasn't much to these poems that could impress or bring something new to the table. They were repetitive and were content with reiterating slogans and ideas that we find on on activist pages on social media, without much poetic reworking. It had tons of potential but eventually fell flat. However, I expect there will be many non-poetry-readers to praise it.

An absolutely gorgeous poetry collection about the way western "civilization" messed up the world, but also about desire, hurt, lust, the need to love and the wish to be loved back, through some really outstanding lyrics. Feel like this is one of the poetry collection that came out in 2021 that really stood out to me!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. These poems are not for the faint of heart, they are raw and direct and powerful examinations of identity, race, sexuality, gender, among many other things. I like to see rage in poems, it doesn't all have to be pretty, though there is gorgeous language throughout.

A strong poetry collection. Nin has a great command of the written word and artfully expresses so much emotion with brevity. The poems are powerful and striking. 'Mourning is Movement's was my favorite of the collection.

A very beautiful and raw collection of poems about being a Black, queer woman in a world that wasn't built for you. Nin is from Angola and I really appreciated a non-Western perspective on not just these issues, but also issues of religion, migration, and belonging. I didn't always understand the line breaks used, but I really loved the imagery and the use of repetition. Highly recommend!

"You learn from women
early on
that we all need kindness
To look for the stores
in women with downcast eyes
the devil is a lie that disappears behind
smoke and life
is a long journey towards forgiveness."

3 stars (coming out Feb 1, 2022, by Astra House)

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Pros
+ Black poet from Angola (currently in asylum in Denmark)
+ Nin is nonbinary and uses they/them
+ themes: racism, war, queer sexuality, and queer love
+ found the descriptions of life in Angola fascinating and the descriptions of war heart-breaking
+ 4 stars (5 poems): "Have You Forgotten? We Were in a Room," "We consume the Body During Sex," "I Am Thinking of Killing Myself," "Find Some Real Chilies," and "If We Happen to Meet on This Road"

Neutral
/ Nin's writing style isn't my cup of tea (I'm a fan of rhyme and/or some form of meter, usually) but writing style is hugely subjective so you may like it more than me if you don't need rhyme
/ 3.5 stars (7 poems): "Luanda Smells of Heat," "My Mother's Face Set Inwards," "The Sound of It Is "Waweh"," "Language Must Be Adequate," "Life Will Hit You, But You Already Know That," "There Are Two Bodies with No Heads," "Write to Slow the Passing of Time"
/ 3 stars (12 poems)

Cons
- 2 stars (4 poems)
- 1 star (2 poems)

TW: war, death, homophobia, suicidal ideation, child death

“𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙗𝙚𝙙
𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨,
𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙮 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙨
𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙨
𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥.”

First of all, I need to express my love for this title. The moment I read it, I knew I had to request this book!

I loved how Aaiún Nin uses their rage to talk about the hardships and two-faced ally-ship. My favourite piece was "Do Not Touch My Hair." It was so raw and yet so frank at the same time.

My second favourite was "Mourning is Movement." It was a simple poem with a punch to the gut execution.

"𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨 𝙄𝙛 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨 ?
𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙪𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣, 𝙞𝙛 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨 ?"

And even though I was not a great fan of writing in some pieces, I enjoy reading this. I give this book three enthusiastic stars!

Thank you Net Galley and Astra Publishing House for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A beautiful, painful, and brutal exploration of identity, race, and queerness. I found this to be an incredibly fresh and sharp approach to poems that explore lesbian identity and racial inequality. I especially loved the repetitive passages that emphasized the same message for several pages--they were in your face in the best way. I think the comparisons to Ocean Vuong and Natalie Diaz were well earned and accurate, and I highly recommend this collection with attention to trigger warnings.

This was a beautiful and raw poetry collection, and I really liked it. I think Aaiún Nin was the potential of becoming a great and well know poetry writer. Their poetry explores themes that are closer to their life, like their feelings as an immigrant in a foreign country or as a Black queer person.

Critiquing poetry is very hard. To me, it’s either I like it or I don’t like. I have to FEEL the poem, some sort of connection has to be made, and I did feel it while reading this collection. I was so absorbed that I read everything in one sitting. I’m gonna give this another go in the future, because I wanna re-read each poem more deeply. If you like poets like Ocean Vuong, Natalie Diaz and Danez Smith, definitely give this collection a go. Aaiún was the potential to become a big voice in the poetry scene. Since I got an ARC, I believe the version I got wasn’t the final printing version, so I hope the editor manage to fix some parts before printing. But that’s it. Keep this in your radar, I think this is gonna be a big poetry release in 2022.

3.5 stars (rounded up)

i really wanted to like this collection but i couldn't understand the line breaks!!! so many of them seemed arbitrary and i really wanted to understand the short lines but just couldn't. sometimes not understanding is an asset to poetry but i don't think so here. the themes and content of the poems are incredibly interesting. i was most struck by the pages of repeated text and wish they were utilized more! some of the poems lacked interesting imagery

Speaking of our current times in an urgent way, if somewhat on the nose. Men, the church and white people figure as token bad actors; something if maybe not unjustified in the eyes of the author, at least not done in any kind of subtle or thought provoking way.
pray for skin light enough to be loved

I requested this bundle because of the evocative title, beautiful cover and the fact Nin as a poet brings several underrepresented voices to the table. However quite soon I felt rather disappointed.
The fleeing war is repetition of a sentence over one and a half page felt rather easy and the genuineness of feeling is not done justice in my view by a rather non-sensical closing sentence like:

Activist spaces littered with non-Black people of color who have not reckoned with their internalized white supremacy and silence the shit out of Black people are as good as used condoms at a skinhead barbecue.
- We are the bodies who fled

A better example of Nin their poetry, and what the goal seems to be of the whole bundle, is captured in:
Who will mourn for us
If we don’t do it ourselves?
Who will make us human,
if we don’t do it ourselves?
- Mourning is movement

The sound of it is “Waweh” is a very moving poem on grief, except for the last sentence that introduces Christianity once more as a seeming root cause of all losses. The below fragment of another poem definitely shows flashes of brilliancy, with this poem being noteable both very raw and intimate:

How do you measure loss?
tell me of the things you hope to forget.
of the things you hoped you would become before you were taken from yourself.
of the things that made you cruel.
tell me when you realized
that going forward means letting go of the parts of yourself you once loved.
- Tell me of the first time you were poisoned

I have run out of space to further mutilate myself - I am thinking of killing myself is another example of the poet at the most visceral. But to counter this immediately, there is a poem like I write to slow the passing of time that in my opinion completely derails to a declaration of awesomeness, of celebration of toughness, in preservering, instead of showing vulnerability or any deeper insight into the poet. The same can be said of Find some real chilies which basically is a bashing without nuance of anything that could be in a stereotypical manner be said to be “white culture”, whatever that might in reality entail.

This metronome of easy outrage of others in statement/manifesto like manner, versus real emotional, touching poems continues throughout the bundle.
Casualties of ejaculations
Of the wrong types bodies
….
We learnt early that to exist is to feel discomfort
- If we happen to meet on this road

I want to love the people whom I love is another achingly gorgeous poem, perfect in epitomizing the feeling of growing up in a world that at least feels partly hostile to you. And immediately Don’t touch my hair throws us back to stereotyped reflections on “white culture”. Which again is a counter reaction that is maybe understandable but just very dull, repetitive and cringeworthy to read. And then to boot Nin does the trick again of repeating a sentence over the surface of two pages in all caps.

An uneven bundle with sparks of brilliance embedded inside of it. Maybe speaking out doesn’t need to be perfect, or even subtle, refined or nuanced, in the face of structural injustices as reflected by the poet in the below poem.
But I as reader certainly would have liked more of those qualities in Broken Halves of a Milky Sun - 2.5 stars rounded down.

information as memory
stored on the body
language as a motor skill
speech as contraction of muscle
release must not be silent
bodies are not concrete
- A door left ajar

This is Ms. Nin’s first collection, though she’s been writing and publishing since 2016. Some of these poems are a bit rough around the edges, yes, but again, they speak deeply to queer (especially in religious/homophobic environments) and immigrant experiences. She also plays around with format in interesting ways, though admittedly the ARC isn’t formatted in places so that could also be part of it.

Definitely intrigued by what I’m seeing here and will be following her writing. I will warn for implied child sexual abuse.

I don't often read poetry but I do like to sometimes branch out and try new things just because I think it's a good way to keep reading fresh.

This collection by Aaiún Nin is fast-paced and contemporary, with focus being put - in several of the poems in the collection - on African migrants risking their lives on the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. Those bits I found striking as I read.

It was also fun to check off Angola on my book project!

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion because I think a lot of readers will like this collection and, perhaps more importantly, a lot of readers will want to like this collection. The author's backstory is interesting and it has multi-cultural interest, which are two trending themes in literature right now. That said, I did not connect with this.

It has very of-the-moment social commentary, which I'm always happy to read about. I love reading about social and political ideas that I agree with, and I lovelovelove reading things I disagree with! How else am I supposed to learn?

Unfortunately, the ideas and themes are, IMO, the main appeal of this collection, as the poems themselves weren't the strongest I've come across in even my limited experience with poetry. They were experimental which is cool because the constraints of craft are a bit freer, but I feel like experimental poems should make me think/feel/experience something I haven't been exposed to before, OR make me experience something old in a new way. That didn't happen here.

This collection wasn't bad, and I wouldn't advise anyone who's interested not to pick it up. I also wouldn't recommend it unless someone I knew was looking for a list of poetry collections with basically the same ideas.