Representation: Black characters
Trigger warnings: PTSD, alcohol consumption, death of a friend from a gunshot, gun violence, blood depiction
Score: Six and a half points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

I got this from one of the two libraries I go to however this is the fourth book-in-verse I've read from Kwame Alexander and honestly this feels like a step down from books like The Crossover, Rebound and Booked; I realised that another author Mary Rand Hess co-wrote this however I think this is different from other books in a way. Where do I begin? Before I start with the plot let me list the positives, for example, the book feels experimental and avant-garde combining poetry, prose and even images making this unique since I know of no other books that do that. That being said it starts with the main characters Walt or Swing and Noah and they describe their lives all in poetry and everything looks normal at first until Noah starts to have feelings for another person called Sam but he doesn't know what to do them yet. Walt helps him at times to try to solve Noah's problem and soon enough a relationship starts with Sam however other side-plots are going on that drag the book down, I mean come on does the book have to be 450-something pages long? Did I need to see the Woohoo Woman podcasts and were they needed in the plot? At least the images were great except for one that was called an insult to a person, the dialogue scenes were intriguing and the love letters were so cheesy! Reminded me of Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley. The latter half gets more chaotic as there was a party that didn't go down too well, I think Noah broke up with Sam and did I mention there was one plot point about American flags being posted but no one knows why. Not even the plot. Some parts are a bit outdated like Twitter still being called Twitter and not X but I can forgive that since it was set before the change. There go 100 more pages of nothing until the ending and boy did it hit like a truck, Swing was walking in the dark with a bat from baseball when suddenly police mistook it for a weapon and then they shot him to death. Wow. That's a tragically low note. And it ends abruptly like that? I don't get it. ( )

I love Kwame Alexander, but I'm not sure hearing him read this book was the best choice. I will give this book another chance if I stumble upon it in print. ( )

3.5 Stars ( )

Not my favorite Kwame Alexander book. ( )