Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This poetry collection is raw, poignant, intricate, vivid, and all around heartbreaking and beautiful. There is no holding back in the author’s emotions or thoughts and it truly feels like you are stepping into their heart and mind.

I was drawn to this book because of the cover and it was even better than I could have imagined. The flow of words and rhythm in every poem is beautiful and I kept reading them in a way that I imagined they would be performed for slam poetry. It was loud in my head and I was just obsessed with the way that cadence comes through. I’ve read tons of poetry books and I’ve never experienced that before. This collection is truly something special, and Siaara Freeman is a poet I will be seeking for more books.

There are heavy topics discussed in this book and I appreciated the vulnerability from Siaara because although I cannot relate in a lot of ways, her words make you feel like you could because she steps you into her shoes. There were some poems I skipped because I felt they weren’t for me as a mixed white/indigenous person based on word usage and the feeling of the poems being deeply personal to those who live by and understand that reality, but I still read most and feel I understood the gist of what Siaara was expressing on every page. This collection can be read by everyone though I think it will touch people who can relate to Siaara on deeper levels in significant ways, such as representation and relatability.

This collection also has poems in formats I’ve never seen before, such as with “The OUTside & the INside of the Joke.” There is so much creativity exploding off the page. Two of my favorites were “You Are Never Too Young” and “It Is Hard to Tell Someone On Fire That You Are Drowning.”

Overall, this is a wonderful collection and I will be highly recommending this to everyone!

I don’t read a lot of poetry, so I wasn’t sure if this was going to be for me. But I’m so glad I received a copy of Urbanshee through NetGalley and have been able to read it over the last few weeks. It’s a collection of poems that touch on so many different themes, from race and class to loss, love and sexuality, tied together with underlying references to mythology.

The poems are so poignant and explore deeply personal elements of Siaara Freeman’s life, including her experiences as a black woman in America and the death of her father. And although these poems are extremely personal to Freeman’s life and own experiences, I feel like everyone will be able to relate to them in some way. For me, there’s certainly a few that will stick with me going forward, in particular ‘the one who gets away’ and ‘the part of the story I failed to mention’. They take a wider look at society in general and Freeman brings in popular culture references, from Kylie Jenner to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, to make her points.

Thank you Siaara for sharing so much of yourself. I’d really recommend this.

"By the time I realize what we are? It is already too late. We are an urban novel you will skim over at Walmart, a four-minute smirk on Fox 8's face, what would occur if Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino produced a film under Eazy-E's direction." (X Things They Never Tell You About The Drug Dealer's Daughter)

Urbanshee is a raw and honest exploration of Freeman's life as a black woman, daughter, and poet as she navigates the grief of losing her father and her experiences growing up.

This collection covered so many topics! There were so many poems I really enjoyed, but my favorites were: Haint Blue, In Attempts to Bring You Back, Haint Black, Meet You At The Crossroads (Erasure), Paranoia, Urbanshee Predicts the Birth of Toni Morrison & Writes Her a Letter, I Wish I Could Have Kissed Devon Wilson on the Mouth, and The Such Thing as the Stupid Question. Overall, chapter four, a Name She Buried, was my favorite, as it contained a lot of poems and lines that I enjoyed and related to.

I find it difficult to talk about the things I dislike in poetry - because it could very well be the thing that someone else enjoyed most. I enjoyed a lot of Freeman's longer pieces that blurred the line between poetry and prose, but some of them did feel like they drug on or repeated themselves too frequently for my taste. I also wish that the overarching theme had been more present. The mythology aspect is definitely in these poems, but I wouldn't call the entire collection a focus on mythology like the title suggests as many of the poems don't contain references or allusions and are more focused on other literary and media references.

Overall, I did enjoy a lot of these poems, but there were only a handful I feel like I'd read again. Freeman has so much talent and I enjoyed this collection enough that I'm excited to pick up more work in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Button Poetry for providing me with a copy for an honest review.

This was a poignant and beautiful collection of poems. The author's framing of mythology and fairytales was eloquently done in that the poems were not necessarily true retellings of fairytales, but rather pulled from some of those same themes. The structure of the poems is experimental and varies, but I think that just adds more to the book. This was a really interesting and wonderful collection and I am glad I got the chance to read this. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC!

Urbanshee, by Siaara Freeman, is a collection of poems that is marketed as a retelling of fairy tales and mythology through an urban lens. The book explores how the physical world can be a part of your identity and discusses blackness in America with raw emotion. Freeman’s poems cut to the heart of modern struggles, shocking you and forcing you to reconsider the fairy tales you remember from childhood.

Freeman’s poems circle around her “hood” where she grew up, the loss of her father, and the pain of feeling like an outsider. One poem, “World in Which the Word Father Is Replaced by Hood” presents the neighborhood as a stand-in parent, while a series of poems such as “Once You Know What Your Father’s Brain Looks Like” and “Fearless Sounds Like Fatherless on the Right Tongue” confront the pain of losing a father to violence. Freeman also contemplates her mother in the poem “On the Day I Learned My Father Was Murdered, I Learned” when she writes “My mother is a person. A real one. / Not just a mom person, not just endless / love, not just mine.” Fairy tale images permeate the deep emotional explorations of growing up in urban America.

Freeman’s poetry is experimental with some poems unfolding in unique ways. She writes several poems that feature frames of words and one poem with large blocks of ink blocking out words. She curses, uses vernacular language, and references pop culture like “flaming hot Cheetos” and the television series “Orange is the New Black”. She returns again and again to colors in poems titled “Haint Blue”, “Haint Pink”, Haint Green”, and “Haint Glitter” and attempts to capture the experience of a girl growing up in a liminal urban space.

Freeman’s collection is more real world than most fairy tale retellings, and the harsh tone of the poems is not for every fairy tale lover, but it will make you think about poetry, fairy tales, and urban life in new ways.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Rating: 3.5/5
I really enjoyed reading this poetry collection. The writing was beautiful and each one of the poems was laced with so much emotion, I felt really drawn in the entire time. However, I don’t quite understand why this book was being described as an retelling of fairy tales, (maybe I somehow missed that part?) I would have described it as something of an autobiographical work with elements of fantasy woven into it.
Overall, it was a really beautiful and raw read I’d recommend to anyone interested in poetry and/or slam poetry.

This was definitely a nice quick read. If youre looking for some poetry to catch up on then this is the perfect little read.for you

I picked this up as a palate cleanser between my big fantasy chonkers, and mostly because I love retellings, and Siaara definitely delivered. While poetry is generally a hit or a miss for me, this one worked refreshingly well, with each poem in the collection as raw and intimate, as it was gripping. Must-try!

As a poetry and retelling lover, I was impatient to read Urbanshee, and it did not disappoint.
I enjoyed reading this poetry collection and loved the way Siaara Freeman laced each poem with her raw emotions and wounds, giving an intimate look into her life and never failing to touch the reader’s heart.
It was an emotional and gripping read, and I recommend this book to poetry lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review

I have received an ARC of Urbanshee from Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

Urbanshee is a brave and intimate look into Siaara Freeman's life and childhood. She is successful in giving readers a look into many of the raw wounds she displays throughout her poetry and playful interpretations of childhood competitiveness and schoolyard games. She does not fail to give readers an unedited view of the struggles of growing up impoverished, the overwhelming loss she has faced, and the streets which inspired her poetic career.

I was initially drawn in by the cover and descriptions of "retelling of fairy tales and mythological stories", I think the retellings portion was a bit lost on me. My criticisms only lie within the heavy use of "&" throughout but that might be the artists stylistic choice. Admittedly, poetry is not my main genre but I am grateful for the push out of my comfort zone.

If you are a slam poetry/poetry fan, I would recommend giving this book a shot.