Clever and inventive collection that explores Black Southern queerness. Excited to read more from Nichelle.

The print version of this was archived before I could read it, so I'll share my review of the audiobook version.

When it comes to poetry, I'm not skilled at saying what I do and do not like about it. I can simply say if I did or did not like it at all. And I did like God Themselves, especially appreciating the sound production on the audiobook, which added different effects as transitions. The narrator has a great voice for poetry, and I was glad to have the chance to listen to it as it was supposed to be read.

The poetry in this book was very well written, however, it is not my favorite style of poetry. A large portion of the poems were very moving and had me thinking a lot, while some of them I felt were just fillers. Overall, I did enjoy it but may not pick up another book by this author.

This collection includes Nichelle's experiences growing up. She weaves religious symbolism, imagery, and traditions/rites into her poems - in a way that transcends the traditional views of religion - with everyday imagery (like in "Elevator" or "Jesus Saves"), her Black community, traumas, mental health, and sexuality.
Some of my favorites: "Black Girl Catholic," "Three Churches Burn in Louisiana," "We Create Our Own Coming of Age" (visually, I loved this), "Tangible Heaven," and "This Was Written." It was hard to choose as there were days when I read/listened where the poem just really hit at that moment and some I had to re-listen to.
I feel like it's always a bit challenging in rating collections of poetry because there are so many different styles, many have to be read aloud, and the rhythm is so important in how you receive the works. Definitely listen to the audiobook, if you can!

**I received an advanced reader copy via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I do want to state before I go into this review that I cannot fully speak on the experiences of this author, nor can I say that this is the most authentic representation of the experiences of someone who exists in the same communities as this author. while I am queer, I am neither black, nor am I religious. Also, the experiences the author has had as a queer person is likely very different than what I have experienced.

Now onto my review:

A good collection of short stories but unfortunately I was only able to access the audiobook and not the ebook. I tend to get very distracted while I listen to audiobooks, even if i'm not doing anything, so I think I could have genuinely liked this more if I had read the ebook with the audio or on its own. I definetely did enjoy some poems but a lot of them lost me? idk. I thought some of the ideas were cool, like letting the phone text prediction write some of the poems, but I just didn't think it worked unfortunately.

This book describes itself as the author "tapping into her experiences of growing up in the South as a queer Black woman to courageously confront the affects of a forced religion and the inherent dangers of living life in a female body." and honestly, I didn't entirely get that from the poems. maybe it's just me, and maybe its just the fact that I listened on audio so I missed certain things I would normally notice, but I genuinely do not feel that this synopsis is the best representation of this book. Though as mentioned earlier, please do seek the reviews of readers who share the experience of this author.

I loved how this audiobook was narrated by the author. It made for a better experience and i felt more like I was in conversation with someone and they were telling me stories, rather than just listening to an audiobook. Some of the poems i enjoyed more from this collection include: This is about nakedness; How I know things are bad again; Worthy of praise; and Love MAYBE God.

Beautifully written poetry about womanhood, identity and religion. I didn’t feel that I could relate to the content very much but I felt that others certainly would. The written presentation of the poems strengthened the words on the page and helped to bring out the author’s voice.

𝗴𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 (𝗽𝗼𝗲𝗺𝘀) 𝗯𝘆 𝗷𝗮𝗲 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲

"𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰"

tw: themes of self-harm, death, mental health, suicide, blood, sex, violence.

i must say, this one took me by surprise.

getting into this book i had one thought in mind: how much more can i say about poetry that expresses about something -or someone- i don't necessarily believe in?

jae nichelle's poetry slapped me across the face, but in the best way possible. it stopped me dead in my tracks and forced me to find the meaning behind every verse, and the common things underneath it all.

girlhood, childhood, the female experience, sexuality, family, the human experience. everything from race to religion to queer relationships.

while i am not a religious individual, i do come from a religious extended family. i've seen up close what religion means, how it affects people and those around them. as i read more, i got more into her story.

i loved the use of foot notes! it was creative and i thought that it didn't just add to the writing, it also transformed it into another poem in itself. 'we create our own coming of age' is an example of this. great editing, great versification.

another thing that left me speechless: the water/mother metaphor in 'hands'. just, wow.

the prosody left me wanting more every time and i really liked jae's way of describing thoughts and feelings.

over all, an amazing compilation of poems that follow a pattern and break it at the same time. adored it!

p.s: shout out to 'lover, we get old' for mentioning argentina, woop!!

thank you NetGalley, Jae Nichelle & Andrews Macmeel for the opportunity!

2 out of 5 stars

This was another case of a book just not really being for me. I enjoyed quite a few of the poems and really did like this author writing style but what was in the book wasn't necessarily what the synopsis said would be. "If you’ve ever contemplated who, what, and where God is, find comfort in these words." should have been the synopsis alone because this describes the poetry collection more than the full synopsis given to me.

Disclaimer: I received a digital arc copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jae Nichelle writes with honesty and vulnerability in a book that uses a range of approaches to verse. There is a lyrical intensity to this work, and a bold voice carries through each entry. Perfect for readers who are looking for fresh and inviting verse.

"if you still tweet / which is praying since you still / say something & no one / listens" (11*)

3.5 stars. Nichelle's collection makes for a fascinating muddle of wordplay and structural play, recurring themes and prayers typed out using predictive text. It's clear that she is a lover—a connoisseur—of words, and I pulled out line after line to think about later.

"some people need the cover of dark / to be themselves & that explains / why you only text when my dinner / is tupperwared, cold / & my bonnet's on. I know what you seek—" (65)

"a good listener is just a bad conversationalist. so my / arguments with god are one-sided long paragraphs to / which I see *read at [day/ time]*. (102)

Poetry remains a somewhat elusive language for me—I can hear the beauty in its rhythms, but it's hard for me to follow it past a certain tipping point; at the same time, I value having to work to understand it, and this is doing that for me in spades. So not every poem resonates (which is fine and expected and frankly preferable), but if I save every line here that *does* resonate, or raise questions (again: prayers typed out using predictive text), it'll be a long time before I run out of food for thought.

"I have been so tenderly held / Tomorrow, will you remind me? I have been so / tenderly held" (115)

*I read a review copy, so quotes and page numbers might not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.

"I don't know if my dreams are dreams or memories.
In both, I have no control over what my body does."


The poems are actually really good and I can't wait to read more from Jae Nichelle in the future.

Thank you, NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC!

Is it alright if I speak of the prose that caught my attention, of those snippets that came at me so hard I couldn't believe that words could do that? For this collection it was 'Question,' of the phrase that states ' I keep things I shouldn't- old receipts, a quiet anger.'
And of the prayers in which I type 'Hello God' and let my phone predict the rest.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

Structure-wise, this book was great! My favorite poem in here is "we create our own coming if age" because of the structure of the poem and the satisfying way the words came up together. I'm not gonna lie, some of the words used here made me consult my dictionary and google for meaning. Content-wise, it's not for me because of the constant bringing up of church and things related to that (it is a trigger for me). I should've known though before requesting this book but, I genuinely thought the "God" aspect and topics related to that (i.e. churches) will be included in this metaphorically, I was wrong. If this is your jam, you would definitely like this more than I do.

Le autore tiene un prosa exquisita al punto de disfrutar el poema aun asi sin entender de lo que se trata.
Rescato que, aunque sea un poemario religioso, este era más que nada un receptor, a quien iba dirigido todo lo que decía le autore.

First, I am so thankful to Andrews McMeel Publishing, NetGalley, and Jae Nichelle for granting me advanced reader access to this wonderfully constructed collection of prose and poems. I grew up very indoctrinated in the Catholic church. Since attending college and breaking into more liberal thought processes, I've deconstructed those ideologies, especially with the cherry-picking racists that seem to project their opinions throughout each organization. Hearing about Jae Nichelle's run-ins with those same discriminatory facilities was fascinating. God Themselves is inspiring and empowering, and now I want to burn down establishments like this and report them for tax fraud.

"After reading and enjoying Chrome Sparks by Mahogany L. Brown, this was recommended to me. While I enjoyed many of the poems, some of them were too experimental for my enjoyment. In poems like ""Everything"" for instance, the use of footnotes really threw me off at first. And poems like ""Isolation of Self"" and ""Everywhere"" felt more like abstract art than poetry that I'm meant to connect with.

I appreciated the creativity of this work-- the changes in tone and voice, the variety of poetic structure, the wide array of imagery. However, I ultimately found it hard to connect with the meaning or even emotion of most of the poems. Unfortunately, this work just isn't for me, but I'm sure many folks will enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley for access to this ARC."

5/5 stars

'God Themselves' by Jae Nichelle celebrates and explores queerness, blackness, and love.

What I liked:

Jae Nichelle may be my new favorite poet. I greatly admire and appreciate her experimental use of form with many of her poems. Each was refreshing and powerful. Often in poetry books, I’ll have a couple poems here and there I like, but the rest don’t elicit such a strong emotional impact. For Nichelle’s poetry, that wasn’t the case. I fell in love with so many of her poems, a few of my many favorites being ‘Done in the Dark,’ ‘prayer as edited by uncle ruckus,’ ‘Sci-fi with Black Lead,’ ‘I Imagine Joy,’ ‘This Is About Nakedness,’ and ‘A Book Reminds Me I’ve Known Joy.’

What I didn’t like:

I genuinely have nothing negative to say. 'God Themselves' is the first poetry book to fully capture my attention—and keep me captivated throughout—in a while.


Overall:

I will be following Jae Nichelle and continue to be on the lookout for more of her works. I’m excited to see what she comes up with next. For those with a love for poetry and interesting, experimental styles, I recommend checking out 'God Themselves.'

This collection was quite stunning. As someone who doesn’t read much poetry, this collection was quite accessible. Her use of form is incredible. Some pages were solid blocks of text, others were staccato ‘d on the page—showing the various ways of thinking: the abstract and the calculated. The intersection of queerness and religion was something quite touching to see in these pages. Nichelle has a way to expand your mind and make you question the ideas that you’ve had in your mind to God—sometimes lovingly referred to as “Gawd”—and religion. Not only is the presence of something holy and overwhelming, but it’s also there in the minutiae of the day. Truly beautiful.

Truly loved each poem, and I would recommend them to everyone to read. I was moved by the author's words and hope to read more of their works in the future. The author explores race, sexuality, and religion through her poems and I was truly blown away by each one.

Rating: 5/5