Surviving Home

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A phenomenal collection of poetry from this new-to-me author. While I enjoyed the entire book, the first half was especially fantastic.

Highly recommend.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me, but I also recognize that I'm probably not the demographic it's intended for.

These poems are honest and compelling. Canyon opens up about life, politics, and their experiences. It's a dark and difficult read at times. Canyon uses poetry to unweave the difficulties of family, racism, and sexism.

It's heavy, captivating, and a thought provoking read.

What a heart wrenching book. Poetry always impacts me but my gosh this one hit right where it hurts. Would highly, highly recommend this author. Absolutely heartbreaking. Definitely look into the content warnings/ trigger warnings before reading.

4 stars

The poet writes about her childhood traumas (& later traumas), how she copes with her past, & the ways she has been resilient in order to survive. Many of these poems are heartbreaking, but also beautiful & tender & powerful.

[What I liked:]

•The way the poet writes about some horrendous experiences is so eloquent & delicate yet fierce & unflinching. She wields an amazing brilliance with words & stories.

•The poet skillfully ties together her past & present in her reflections, tracing how everything is connected, but also how she has found a way forward. They are very insightful poems.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•In a few poems, the language got a bit purple. It felt like the poet was trying to cram as many multisyllabic words in as possible, which for me in those instances detracted from what she was trying to say.

CW: child abuse, ableism, child sexual abuse, substance abuse, racism, police brutality, domestic violence, mental illness

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

This is a brilliant work with a voice that echoes in the depths of categories of writing that are currently flooded. So many titles today draft narratives of abuse that depict the road to acceptance and survival as being linear or continuous, but the organization of poems and the continual return to the events showcase for readers a genuine experience.

In addition to being a story of survival, the author highlights the difficulty of traversing her relationship with her own mother, navigating societal biases against people of color and females in general, and her own journey and concerns as she becomes a mother herself.