Angel & Hannah is a beautiful YA novel told in verse. The story dives into the meaning of "young love and if it can survive." This story is honest, with overtones of grief due to tragedy. This is a collection of stories that compose one story about the sadness that love can bring. The story also depicts systematic racism, but also showcases the beauty of culture and close-knit communities.

Poetry has never been something that I can connect with, but this little gem had me from the first page. This is a beautiful story that made my heart ache for the characters being equally joyful and sad. This book deserves all the love, but I am not sure I have the right words to express the beauty of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and One World books for an early copy of Angel & Hannah: A Novel in Verse! This beauty published last week and is out now.
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I finished this book in two sittings during the first weekend of May. It was just so beautiful and so good I couldn’t stop reading. It was the perfect way to start off some AAPI reads this month.
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This interracial Romeo & Juliet retelling told in verse was phenomenal to say the least. I first heard about this when @deedireads was reading it. And I knew I had to read it ASAP! And as soon as I started I knew this was going to be something special. It was beautiful and tender and just all around amazing.
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Ishle Yi Park has a true way with words. Every moment was written so clearly and so gorgeously that at times I was stunned and left in awe. I loved how it was written, every line beautifully crafted and selected to create a whole novel of beauty.
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I loved the way Park evoked the feeling of New York in the summer. The sights and sounds, the smells, the way each block was different from the next. It all felt visceral and sharp in my mind’s eye. She did such an incredible job of putting us, the readers, into the world she created.
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Angel & Hannah were perfection, in their imperfections. The characters were just so well drawn and so well crafted. They truly felt like two teenagers falling in love for the first time. I fell in love with them and my heart ached for every moment of teenage angst and sadness they felt. And it lifted for every moment of joy they experienced in one another.
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If you enjoy a novel in verse, and absolutely gorgeous writing I highly, highly recommend Angel & Hannah. It is a wonderful read!

A lyrical love story told across the seasons is gritty and rough with a tender underside. A story of teens of different cultures growing up in New York City and falling in love and the struggles and sacrifices that goes along with that love.

My Thoughts:
This YA novel in verse is pushed as a "reimagining of Romeo and Juliet," and not in a Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo + Juliet kind of way where the Shakespeare text is brought into a contemporary (at that time) crime tragedy in a made up Verona setting. Instead, this reimagining is more about if Romeo and Juliet were from different cultures and different neighborhoods, what would be the protests against them? Also, if they were strong willed teens who decided to live together, would it work out?

Unlike Romeo and Juliet, there is no double suicide, but there is more than death that can make this tragic, so perhaps the message here for young readers is really about the wide spaces between cultures and places. Perhaps this is about the residual effects of poverty, culture clashes and a crumbling social structure, but I do not expect readers to get that. I think what they will get from this is a hunger and a lust from the two characters. The poems are intimate and steamy. I wanted the two characters to have unique poet voices or poetry styles, but it is more jazz than hip hop in that at different points, different styles step forward to blast. Once I got used to it, I got it. It is raw, and young adult readers are hungry for raw.

From the Publisher:
Hannah, a Korean American girl from Queens, New York, and Angel, a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn, fall in love in the spring of 1993 at a quinceañera:

under a torn pink streamer
loose as a tendril of hair—lush—

his eyes. Darkluminous. Warm. A blush
floods her. Hannah sucks in her breath, but
can’t pull back. Music fades. A hush ~
he’s a young buck in the underbrush,

still in a disco ball dance of shadow & light

Their forbidden love instantly and wildly blooms along the Jackie Robinson Expressway.

Told across the changing seasons, Angel & Hannah holds all of the tension and cadence of blank verse while adding dynamic and expressive language rooted in a long tradition of hip-hop and spoken word, creating new and magnetic forms. The poetry of Angel and Hannah’s relationship is dynamic, arresting, observant, and magical, conveying the intimacies and sacrifices of love and family and the devastating realities of struggle and loss.

Angel & Hannah by Ishle Yi Park is a loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet in vibrant poetic verse. The story follows Hannah, a Korean-American girl from the Bronx and Angel, a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn who quickly begin an intense relationship. The sense of place is stunning and gorgeous, set in early 1990s New York. The story largely takes place in Angel’s world. I loved being immersed in Angel’s Brooklyn neighborhood with his family and neighbors, though I wish we could have also gotten to know Hannah’s family and background better. The story becomes heavier and more ominous as Angel and Hannah struggle with their sometimes very bleak circumstances as teenagers and their seemingly doomed relationship. Overall a very affecting, beautiful story told in verse.

Thank you Random House / One World and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I'm picky about novels in verse but I loved Angel & Hannah! I also don't love retellings, but I loved this R&J retelling! Pick this up ASAP!

The premise of this book was really unique - a Romeo & Juliette retelling in verse based in New York in the 1990s. It had a Korean American Juliette, Hannah, and a Puerto Rican Romeo, Angel. I was really hoping to like this book more than I did. It just didn't measure up for me to other books in verse I've read. I found the story hard to follow at parts, and sometimes was unsure who was speaking, whether it was the narrator, Hannah or Angel. This was a lot a grittier than other books in verse I've read, so I'm not sure if that's also why I wasn't a fan. I still think others will enjoy this, it just wasn't for me.

Angel & Hannah, a novel in verse, is a Romeo and Juliet retelling about a Korean-American girl from Queens and a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn in the 1990s. Yes, it sounds incredible. And yes, it is incredible.

First, let’s talk about the story — emotional, beautiful, heartbreaking. Hannah comes from a lonely, strict home with a secret ugliness, and Angel lives the reality of NYC in the 90s, where drug trade and violence are part of everyday life. Then the two meet at a quinceañera, and their whole worlds are turned upside down. The story is broken into four sections for the four seasons, but it moves fluidly through time across the span of several years as we watch the rise and fall of their great love. There is a lot of pain in this book — addiction and loneliness and loss and heartbreak. But there is also so much beauty, and not a little bit of hope. And I so loved the fire inside Hannah and the softness inside Angel.

Now let’s talk about this novel being in verse. Ishle Yi Park breathes life into language, with poetry that’s both gritty and gorgeous. This isn’t the kind of poetry that leaves you scratching your head, feeling like you missed something — it’s the kind with rhythm and subtle rhyme that feels inevitable, that carries you forward while demanding you slow down, that breaks your heart wide open, that wants you to read it again and this time out loud. It’s the kind of poetry that will appeal to those who read a lot of poetry just as much as it will appeal to those who barely ever read poetry.

By the end, my heart had completely left my body. I wanted to flip back to page one and start all over. And I wanted to tell everyone that they should read it immediately.

ANGEL & HANNAH is a stunning YA novel-in-verse that tackles the question, "Can young love survive?". Realistic, intense, gritty, and softened by the masterful lyricism of prose. Perfect for those who want another read in the vein of THE POET X and THE LONG WAY DOWN, this is perfect for them!

Written in an overtone of tragedy and grief, don't think it's just a sad story because where the sadness lies, notes of strength and power are woven throughout making this novel gleam. I am so glad I read this gem!

Be forewarned that this book is---raw and gritty and intense in language at times so if you are sensitive to swearing, mentions of, and brief descriptions of sex, this may not be for you.

I enjoyed this a lot but I know I would have enjoyed it a lot more in audiobook format! Written in verse and with piercing language, this book screams to be read out loud. Park weaves a gorgeous story of two kids from different backgrounds who find each other for a passionate and doomed relationship. I almost wish it was a little longer because by the time I was so engrossed in the poetry, it ended. Great for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and for those that want to read something short and sweet and a little different.

A love story told in verse, <em>Angel &amp; Hannah</em> is a realistic, gritty and yet totally romantic story of two teens from different worlds finding love.

The writing is lyrical and mesmerizing, each part introduced by an overview of events like a Greek chorus. The writing was solid and rhythmic, ebbing and flowing as if someone was beside me speaking. I like how different Angel and Hannah are, how they see their differences as strengths and how each's foreign world shows different challenges they must face.

The overall tone of the book is tragic and sad, with glimmers of hope and lines of strength woven in. It was hard for me to read, heartbreaking and anxious as the teens struggle with sex, love, drugs and racism. I can't say I enjoyed the book because for me, it was pretty hard to read and I grew frustrated with the characters very early on. That said, it could be a very updated and organic account of teens and the problems many face. I love the setting and how the setting played such a major character in the story. There are a lot of beautiful nuances about race, culture, poverty and class. I love the raw and powerful language and incredible strength the author displayed in the characters.

Angel &amp; Hannah is a good discussion book to read, one that should be digested with friends. I like how the author didn't shy away from hard topics, how circumstances play a bigger role in relationships, how sometimes love isn't the end of the story.