This is a well written collection of poetry covering a pretty wide range of topics.
Definitely would recommend

I loved reading this book. The words of Pangea held on tight and i couldn't stop reading till the last page. I felt the poet's commentary and story about racism and everything in between

“I am beautiful only when my legs are open and I have forgotten my mother tongue to make room for yours.”

you know, i enjoyed this. it was a quick read and each poem was beautiful and relatable. my favorites were “i explode in quiet” , “writers block” and “how to be loved by him.”

3 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. “Pangaea” is a collection of poems by Hinnah Mian that are incredibly personal and painfully truthful. Throughout this collection, Mian details the violence that she has endured and how it has shaped her relationship with her identity and her body, as well as how it has impacted her mental health. While Mian’s writing style did not always click with me, I still found her poetry to be incredibly powerful and I admired the way that she was able to confront and discuss incredibly heavy topics so boldly. There were a lot of lines that stuck out to me, but the most memorable being, “read the scars on/ my body like braille, for i no longer know how to/ tell a story that belongs deeply to me but is/ no longer just mine,” from “Welcome to My Body: A War Memorial”. This is a great collection and I am looking forward to what Mian writes in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC of "Pangaea" by Hinnah Mian.

This blank verse collection of poetry by Mian is absolutely beautiful. The way she details her experiences through her words makes you think and not only empathise with her, but it allows you to truly go along this journey with her. With topics such as: racism, discrimination, death and grief being protrayed heavily throughout, this book is a must read for any readers wanting a poetry collection about topics that need to be acknowledged and spoken about more.

I was very impressed with this collection. Having never read from Hinnah Mian before, and having some bad luck when it comes to poetry in the last few months, I was a little hesitant to dive into this, but I'm really glad that I did. Hinnah's poems on family, mental illness, relationships and being a brown girl in America were incredible poignant and very well written. Her words felt very passionate and like they were written with purpose. She was exposed, raw, real and vulnerable. I was really impressed with how she was able to paint such vivid pictures, and I found myself going back and re-reading a lot of verses that took my breath away. The only real critique I would have is that some poems felt very similar to each other, and there were a few metaphors and descriptions that I felt she had already used in previous poems, which took away from them a bit.

Some of my favourite poems in this collection include:
- I Explode In Quiet
- There Are More Guns In American Thank People
- Different Is Sometimes Synonymous With Lonely
- For The Man Who Colonized My Body
- Backpacks And Bombings
- An Apology
- The Composition Of Bones
- Pangaea
- On Translating Him
- The Anatomy Of Haunting
- On Learning To Love A Shipwreck
- A Portrait As The Flowers On A Grave
- Flashbacks
- Open Letter To America

"No room to garden outside? No problem! " This book seriously delivers! I have a very small patio at my apartment but this book helped me think bigger and now I have plans to grow my own food indoors.

"This country collects too many tongues, until our only language becomes quiet. This is me screaming "

4.5 stars. This book was fantastic. I think it can be best encompassed through the line above. This is a book of screaming's. This is a collection of words that is overflowing with passion, with pain, and with reflection. One of the best poetry collections that I have read in a long time. If you like poetry, and you are passionate about cultures and what it means to belong in two places at once, this is the collection for you. Highly highly highly recommend.

"Read my body like the scripture it is, and let's pray for a future neither of us believes in"

ARC provided by net galley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit I have been stupidly skeptical when going into more recent contemporary poetry, in the age of Rupi Kaur style poems and the even less colorful tiktok verse. I will also admit I am far from a poetry expert, I have never written anything good in my life and have not even read as much as I want to. I also do not know how to rate poetry, but damn, this really was something.

In Pangea, Mian is exploring the nuances of trauma inflicted on a body, and she has composed a beautiful and hauntingly poignant look on race, relationships, and mental illness that is as personal as it is intense. This collection is filled with the abstract and the metaphorical without neglecting the more simple. I mean I really fell in love with Hinnah Mian’s use of language and if you’re like me you’ll find yourself rereading and screenshotting almost every poem here.

My only qualm is that occasionally the collection felt to close together, in the sense that some poems, no matter how fantastic they felt on their own, seemed like recreations of previous ones.

Overall I will definitely be returning to hinnah mian in the future! and I would recommend Pangea to any fan of poetry out there, new and old (but especially new).

I love reading about women and their unnecessary struggle in our system. It’s written so beautifully that it makes me want to read more of such amazing writer.

Hinnah Mian is a Pakistani American poet and author whose work has appeared in Harness Magazine, JUMP, Blue Minaret, and The Rising Phoenix Review. Her first book, To Build a Home, won silver in the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards. She spends her time journaling, exploring, and living out her days with the love of her life—her dog, Felix. Her newest collection, Pangaea: Prose and Poetry explores the horrors and traumas inflicted on one’s body in a striking and poignant collection.

A lot of the horror in Mian’s poetry is metaphorical, and the vehicles of the poems work to explore how memory and trauma affect the body with very visceral images. For example, the second poem in the book “Welcome to My Body: A War Memorial” contains lines like:
here, under the flesh
of my heart, a man’s
corpse has settled,
decaying until it is
one with my body’s system.

i am still learning how
to give a killer
a proper burial.
Lines like these explore trauma through a lens of horror, and use horror tropes to create a really striking tone for the reader.

Elsewhere, Mian uses these vehicles to make sociopolitical statements that deal with how one’s body can be colonized. For example, lines like
I know I’m American, because death is an old friend you see at the grocery stores,
the movies, church—a familiar haunting we have learned to live with.
or
as an American, death has become
as patriotic as the blood-red flags
that we are taught to respect more than
human bodies.
Here, death is personified and a very real character in everyday life. Mian taps into some universal horrors and fears in her poems to make her political points as direct and strong for readers, leaving them haunted by the specters she faces daily.

Pangaea: Prose and Poetry is a really strong collection of poetry and short prose. These are terrifying poems that tap into some universal horrors to haunt the readers. Elsewhere, Mian uses various horror tropes to discuss the traumas that plague her body. This is a very strong and striking collection of writing that horror readers will want to read.

"If you wish to read the story of my people look no further than my body."

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing for the ARC. This is a collection of intensely personal poetry full of themes of racism, discrimination, diluting oneself to fit in or be deemed acceptable, love, family, and trauma. I really enjoyed this. The poetry is very strong, emotive, and obviously comes from a very personal place. My only real criticism would be that occasionally the collection felt repetitive, even when the poems themselves were individually strong.

"I am no longer in the business of turning rage into silence."

***I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

I'm genuinely in awe of this collection. A lot of these poems I couldn't relate to but it didn't matter because the emotion Mian wrote could be felt through the pages. Her collection was raw, beautiful, and personal. I found myself bookmarking so many poems and devouring this collection.

"Accept that I am a dug-- I will destroy you from the inside out but make you feel euphoric while doing so"

A beautiful collection of poetry, I just think it was not intended for me. A lot of it resonated with me and I marked quite a few lines. But, as a whole, this is intended for a different audience. I look forward to reading other prose and poetry by Hinnah Mian.

''some nights i am less star and more the darkness that shrouds them''

Woah, this was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish. I saved so many lines that I've lost count. What a marvelous journey this has been. This is the best poetry collection I've read in 2022. I will certainly follow Hinnah in whatever she does next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this before publication date.

hinnah mian's poetry is true poetry. i love the choice of words and her powerful metaphors. i couldn't choose a favorite poem from this collection because all of them are worth making the list. congratulations on writing an amazing collection.

it is an easy read. the poetry is not too difficult to understand and not too cryptic, but powerful and elaborate enough to be considered poetry.

the only criticism i have is that sometimes, the poems are repetitive. they sometimes reuse the same metaphors and subject matter which doesn't make them distinct in the collection together. every poem is strong enough to stand on its own, but when viewed together, they start to mesh together.

thank you netgalley for allowing me to read the arc of this wonderful book. i recommend it to everyone who wants to get into poetry.

The following review will be posted on Sunday, February 6th, two days before publication. It will be shared on Instagram and Twitter on that date, but has already been posted on Goodreads. The blog post includes links to pre-order the book and to its Goodreads page.


“No matter how much I wear to cover my skin, I can never seem to hide it enough.”

Genre: Poetry, Essays and Collections
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses racism, discrimination, death, and depression.

“Pangaea” is a collection of poetry and prose where the author, Hinnah Mian, looked to express how a body can be destroyed and reborn through many means and for many reasons. Looking at the color of skin, the significance of cultural bias, the power of love—lost and gained, from family and from lovers—, and the impact society has on us, Mian has composed a beautiful oath for our bodies and our selves.

I saw being watered down as a theme. It was mentioned various times and it was something that resonated a lot with me through this book. Hinnah Mian made a wonderful job at highlighting how you can feel like you’re not appropriate in your own ‘home’, how at times you’ll have to dilute yourself to be accepted. The only reason why this book didn’t get a perfect rating from me is because some poems were repetitive and a bit monotone.

I would recommend this poetry book to anyone who’s ever felt invisible in their own skin or—even worse—targeted because of it. I also feel like this could be a powerful gift for a friend or loved one who loves poetry.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“some nights i am less star
and more the darkness that shrouds them”

This poetry collection was a captivating yet heartbreaking deep dive into varying trauma experiences. I was so deeply moved by the author’s hauntingly beautiful words exploring abuse, racism, mental health, culture - and what it means to rise up from the ashes. Hard to read, but artfully told.

Stunning collection. Some of these lines will live in me forever. Highly, highly recommend this lovely little book.

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this collection in exchange for a review!

You cannot speed through this beautiful collection in one sitting – each poem holds the weight of the world and will leave you in thought, awe, and preponderance long after you leave it. Any reader would do well in taking their time with each of Mian's stories and giving them the time they deserve to develop understanding.

Every one of Mian's verses is a sharp cut to the bone, with visuals that steal breath and conjure waterfalls. Courage flows from each poem, with her unique prose offering new perspectives on the world, personal pain, love, depression, and more.

I highly recommend picking up this collection and experiencing her words for yourself.