Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.

This one got to me, man. This is the power of poetry. Falkner expresses youthful queerness better than anyone I've ever read. The lengths we go to in order to appear straight - not even straight, necessarily, but anything other than that which we are - and the reclamation of what we've missed out on when finally we're able to be honest with ourselves about it. I was expecting this poetry collection to be heartbreaking, but I wasn't expecting it to also be hilarious; I can't quote from it, but there are two poems in particular which had me laughing out loud. There were poems about white guilt which initially made me a little uncomfortable, but with each poem on that theme it became clearer what Falkner is saying, and I think it's a worthwhile point; that cultural appropriation can become a kind of contest to absolve white guilt. This is an ambitious and honest collection, and I was expecting to like it, but not to love it. And I do love it.

I want to own this collection, and will absolutely be preordering it so that it can sit on my shelf. I want to carry it around with me and dog-ear all the pages and highlight my favourite lines.