Tells the stories of the author's women ancestors, taking us through history and the history of their family.

I wish I had all of the words to explain how moving and lovely this story of Young's female relatives was. It just tells their stories in a way that is so tangible. I think what lends even more so is the artistry of her poetry and the fact that there are different forms and ways that she expresses these stories. I sat and read it in two sittings and was just in awe.

I really enjoyed it. Thank you for the ARC.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC!
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Unfortunately I DNFed this, it just didn’t catch my attention and maybe I’ll get into it again when Imm in the perfect headspace to give this another try!

This was a memoir of her family in verse and I loved it, I haven't read much poetry that is narrative and as i'm starting this was a good way to start

This was beautifully and lyrically written. A retelling of the authors ancestry in verse. The beauty of being a Black woman. A beauty that comes with its own heartache from the second you’re born in this country. Loved it.

Walking Gentry Home is a well written and relatively quick read. Had I related more to the content, I may have enjoyed it more, but I didn't care for the genealogical nature of the story, even as I appreciated the styled composition.

This is an ambitious, moving account of Alora Young's ancestors, their stories told in free verse poetry with a lot of both internal and external rhyme and alliteration and rhythm. Although Alora admits her knowledge of her foremothers and fathers is limited, she seems to have found or invented quite a lot of information about them as she recounts in poetic form generations of stories of shotgun weddings, lost love, young dreams, and hard work.

In one poem in which Gentry the foremother won't let Aunt Janette go to the movies with a boy, and instead forces her to take all her younger brothers and sisters, the poem ends with:
Mothers are harshest
when their hope
is helping you avoid
making the mistakes
that had once been their own.
A large part of the narrative is about Gentry not wanting her daughters to make the mistake she made of letting herself be swept up by romance in her youth.

Some of the rhymes feel too heavy handed or sing-song (e.g., the shallow gradient of gloom inside every barren womb... or "My boys have got jealousy/ my boys have got rage/ my boys have got pain/ far beyond their age.") But other rhymes that fit together without the perfect syllable counts work better to move the soul. In "Yvonne Pregnant, 1969," the teenaged, unwed Yvonne is made to confess her sins in church:

She bore herself to be chastised
in spite of the words Jesus proselytized.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,"
they who swore to live lives of love
piled rocks to tear down a girl
who only ever wanted to feel less alone.

Monette, the author's mother, is a brilliant little girl who is placed in special ed because her teachers don't see how she teaches herself to read. One day Monette learns her mother Yvonne has married a new man (having never married Monette's father). The poet reflects:
"Stepparents are the rare kind of person,
who you're stuck with before you grow to love them...
It's an arranged marriage.
One a child doesn't get to consent to."
But that poem takes a surprise, happy turn when the author reveals that Monette's stepfather was
"my grandpa James Tyus/ the only one I've ever known./ And even if there's no blood between us, he will always be Home."

The book is full of pearls of wisdom, many of them caught in the titles, such as this one: "The Most Judgmental Women Are Those Who Hate Themselves" or "Y'all Need to Stop Underestimating the Evil in Somebody Just Because They Say They're a Woman of God" (in which we learn that some folks never let you forget one thing, that they think they're better than you because of your skin.) And "You Ain't Gotta Die and Go to Heaven or Hell to Get What You Deserve." And "Show me the Company You Keep I'll Tell You Who You Are."

Wise words are also inside the poems. In a poem about her bully, "The thing shameful people hate most in the world/ is those who love themselves." In the poem "The White Dress," after recounting a story of how another girl started wearing the dress Monette loved, the poet reminds us that "when keeping up is all/ you have there's not time for growth to happen." In another poem about sisters who drop their kids off at their mothers to go run around for the day, the poet notes, "My family has spent centuries in search of girlhood./ Even when it came only in the form of running from being a woman."

The last section is from the eyes of the poet herself and speaks most directly of the racism that never ends and that has recently flared back, the poems often told in a slam. Black tax, all compliments amended with "for a Black girl," the American Dream done better in Canada, "sick of having to tell my brother he's not allowed to walk at the park because/he's too Black and too much of a man now." Other great lines:"if words are bullets then your ballot is a /Semi-Auto-/Matic." "How am I supposed to tell my sons/ that they are wanted men/ when they are infants?"

Overall, this is a beautiful collection, full of pearls and life, recounting both, and as with life, it's worth the time to skim past the few duds.

The author gets deep with this powerful book. It was an interesting and introspective book, with poetry that makes the reader consider the past, and it's relationship to the present.

This beautiful, powerful book in verse will captivate readers. The author tells this stories of her ancestors along with her own story. As you read you get a idea of how history, family, racism and love shaped her family and her life. It is at times painful and always thought provoking. The poetry allows the feelings and thoughts to really come alive.

Walking Gentry Home by Alora Young tells the story of generations of Black mothers and their daughters. Young tells their story - her story - in stunning verse that pulled emotion from me every step of the way. The book is broken down into sections of time and the poems in them are fairly short but have a large impact. My two favorite lines were:

"We can work as one nation / Because I know for sure / Ignorance is born of isolation."

"She knew she had to start running / Or she risked becoming / Every mother / Who never took her time / To dance."

Young's talent in writing this tory shines through and I am so grateful to have read it and that she shared it with the world. I am in awe of her foremothers and their story of survival. I love reading books in verse and this was clear, well organized, and shared a history and a belief that history can spur change in our world today.

I was completely stunned by this in-verse biography. Poetry is still fairly new to me, and doesn't always click well in my brain, but this? Beautiful and tragic in every way.

Please look up trigger warnings for this before you read as it deals with some heavy topics.

This is a powerful and beautifully written story told in verse. I felt every bit of the emotion in Alora's words. There is so much I want to say, but I haven't figured out how to put into words. Please pick up this book and read it!! If you're not touched by this book, I don't know what to say.

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC for my honest review!

CW: slavery, racism, rape, domestic abuse, teen pregnancy, teen marriage, loss of loved ones

Walking Gentry Home by Alora Young is a book, or should I say memoir, told in verse. That in itself is something you don't come across every day, never mind find a review for on my blog. I will be the first to admit that I'm no expert on the matter, so I want to clarify that these thoughts I'm trying to compile are mostly based on what the writing made me feel - and that was a lot.

I've tried to learn a bit about my family's history, but there's many gaps and missing pieces, so I was impressed by what Alora Young uncovered and managed to bring to life on the page. Not only did she find a way to give a voice to generations that came before her, but she did so with few and yet impacting words. Her verses faced harsh realities of generational pain and trauma, but also let the light of mother- and womanhood shine through. As we followed key moments in Young's maternal ancestry, I felt the connection and ties grow beneath each one of them and me as a reader. Sometimes it was as if we read from their perspectives, sometimes it was told from Alora Young's POV and other times it almost felt like a collective consciousness.

I know this is quite the brief review, but I thought Walking Gentry Home was masterfully done. I felt the emotional tether throughout, even if I got mixed up with the timeline sometimes. All of it seems not just rooted in Young's personal family history, but that of Black history in America in general. Often thought-provoking and unflinchingly honest, it is sure to linger in your mind.

Fazit: 5/5 stars! Wonderful and impacting family history!

Walking Gentry Home is a lyrical history of the author’s lineage. Set in poetic style, Young explores her female heritage.
It’s an interesting approach. I am not a fan of poetry since I prefer prose, but she gets her message across.
I liked the family history and the stories.

This is one of those poetry books that makes you remember the names of the people mentioned. I loved the way Young told the stories of her foremothers, grandmother, and mom. I loved the way the book was structured. One of my favorite poems is Advice Poem. An advice that really stayed with me was “Being a young Black girl is tough.” Though this book was heavy at times, I couldn’t help but pick it up every time to see what happened next. What happened to Yvonne? What happened to Gentry? What happened to Monette? These poems will pull you away from your current reality. As a Black woman, I love reading poetry books centering around Black girls and women. I am so excited to go get my physical copy. My rating for this book is five stars!

Such a great read, I'm so glad I got a chance to read this. I love the way the author walked us through generations of trauma, our country's history, and so much more. I've never truly connected to a book on this level and I truly appreciate the research and tears that were given for this book!

Alora Young has told the story of her family history from when her ancestors were stolen and sold into slavery to present day relatives in Tennessee. Young weaves the stories of her relatives through the beautiful language of poetry. A must read book.

Once again, a book in verse has surprised me. This book/memoir was done beautifully and I love every bit of it.
As a Black woman, I am always intrigued when Black authors write about the concept of Black girlhood because it is so nuanced and Young does such a good job.
writing this memoir in verse makes it all the more beautiful.

I fell in love with this book from the first line: “This home of mine lies in the steam that rolls off the hot water cornbread.” Written by Alora Young, a student at Swarthmore and the Youth Poet Laureate of the Southern United States, this memoir in verse is a brilliant ode to Young’s foremothers. She lovingly traces her ancestors’ histories back hundreds of years, to some whose names have been lost to time. Using family stories, interviews, DNA, archives and an enslaver’s will, Young pieces together what their lives might have looked and felt like, masterfully connecting history to the present, following and celebrating the enduring threads of Black womanhood throughout.

Books in verse
are lyrical.
Walking Gentry Home: A Memoir of My Foremothers
exemplifies this.
It pays homage to the Black women in her family
and mine
and me.

Oh my goodness! This book was absolutely amazing! It was everything! I really loved the concept of Alora recounting the lives of her foremothers through verse. It was interesting to read about her family history, the small town she and her foremothers lived in, and the changes in history.

Walking Gentry Home was absolutely a beautiful book to read, and I think everyone should read it. Well done, Alora, well done!