Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

Incredibly moving poetry collection with raw emotions and experiences vibrating through each line. Sadly very relevant lines at this moment in time.
Each poem is an experience. Beautiful.

The first line of the poem My father, the astronaut: If the moon was Europe, my father was an astronaut who died on his way to the moon.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House UK for the e-ARC.

A breathtaking mediation on family, war, trauma and life as a refugee. Beautiful, haunting, each poem is like a prayer, the smell of incense following you as you close the book and take a breath. One to be approached slowly, reverently; a book to live within.

What an amazing book, full of raw emotion and barely suppressed anger particularly about the plight of refugees who don't ask or want to leave their home countries but are forced out of them. I found "Home" particularly affecting.
I didn't know of Warsan Shire before I read this, and although we are very different ages and with different cultural heritage, I felt that her poems touched on universal themes of many women's lives. I particularly liked her use of somali words which sounded right in the poems, - but I was pleased of the glossary so I could understand them.
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book

“I want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark. Home is the barrel of a gun. No one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore.”

Punchy and powerful poetry. These poems are full of lines and themes that leave you struck into silence.

“Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women. Sometimes, the men - they come with keys, and sometimes, the men - they come with hammers.”

It’s not an easy read, but Shire has highlighted beauty in the pain. There is a particularly beautiful poem called Backwards which is beautiful when read forwards and backwards.

There is so much skill in saying so much with so little, my favourite line:

“Chain-smoking under ill-formed halos.”

Beautiful.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head will be released on 10th March 2022. Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

It’s taken me a while to write this review. A hugely emotive and highly skilled collection from surely one of the best living poets we have. Stories of migration, coming of age, war, violence, sexual assault, tradition, all pack a punch in this extraordinary collection of verse. There isn’t much more to say. All I know is that I’ll be thinking about it for months and months to come.

This book spoke to me of rites of passage and then again, some rites ripped away. Lives cut short - such sadness there
It’s a real voice of women for today and written with such feeling.

I started to read the first poem and was totally captivated. I didn’t realise at first that there is a glossary at the end of the book and I started to look up the meaning of certain words. However, I soon gave up doing this as I realised that I needed to immerse myself in each powerful poem without stopping. Once I finished the first reading, I went back to study each wonderful poem in more depth. I looked up the word “Hooyo”, a word that comes up so often. The first meaning I found on Google was “home”. I realised after a while that this couldn’t be the only meaning. It is in fact “mother “ but the word “home” is so relevant too in these astonishing poems by a writer who should be part of every school curriculum. We so often read about refugees but in these poems, you get into the head of the refugee who would not leave home unless “home was the mouth of a shark”. Thank you, Netgalley for allowing me to read this. I look forward to buying my own copy. The cover looks amazing too. My book group doesn’t read poetry but we will definitely read and discuss this book!

This collection of poetry by Warsan Shire is a startling one, full of insight, incredibly powerful and deeply moving. Exploring what it means to be a black woman in this world, she finds new ways to express universal truths, whilst speaking to the unique experience of one person. After reading this I will be tracking down more by her.

ARC provided through NetGalley for an honest review, thank you to them and the publishers and to Warsan Shire for a memorable collection.

Warsan Shire's first volume of poetry for a mass audience is, ironically, a sort-of greatest hits for those who have followed her work for years (or listened to Beyonce's 'Lemonade'). The level of her internet fame is such that you probably already know that, and you're probably surprised it took this long to materialise.

Shire's poems are like ripe fruit; a proper sensual experience. They dance the line between longing and shame, between memory and bitter nostalgia. The images she talks about are sometimes hazy or dreamlike, an echo of how trauma can mess with your memory. Running through the volume are observations on a mother figure. Is she tragic or abusive or both? Shire knows there is no neat answer. A beautiful book.

I was extremely excited to see this on NetGalley and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a strong collection of emotional, powerful and raw poetry that is a great continuation of her work.