You Better Be Lightning
Ratings9
Average rating4.7
I received this e-book at no cost in exchange for an honest review. The last book of poetry I read was ZigZag Girl by Brenna Twohy. Wait, actually, I lied; it was The Age of Discovery by Alan Michael Parker, but that was for school. The last time I listened to any of Andrea Gibson's poetry was when I was in my senior year of high school, and also sometimes when it comes up on my Spotify, but that's involuntary. My favorite poem is “Sorrow is Not My Name” by Ross Gay, and most of my poetry reading comes from either poetry I have to read in school or screenshots that my friend Noor sends me through Discord DMs, or tucked into the body of a letter.
Andrea Gibson was also probably the first person I heard talk about their gender in any way that felt meaningful to me, and it would take me another three years to find pronouns that fit me, even though the year I first heard them speak was the year I found my own name and told other people about it.
Some poems start off a little silly before they move into heartrending, like “The Museum of Broken Relationships”, some poems start off heartrending and stay that way, like “Time Piece”; all would be better read out loud to me in a little bookshop downtown while I hold a cup of overpriced coffee in my hands.
The following poems made me tear up:
QUEER YOUTH ARE FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DIE BY SUICIDE
EVERY TIME I EVER SAID I WANT TO DIE
WHAT LOVE IS
MY GENDER IS THE UNDOING OF GENDER
THE NIGHT SHIFT
If you're looking for a queer book of poetry, you can't go wrong with the hundred and twenty-eight pages that belong to YOU BETTER BE LIGHTNING. You can buy it here from Bookshop.org, or borrow it from your local library. (4.25 stars)
This review is copy+pasted from my blog at Latitude's Library: find it here geographreads.wordpress.com.
super vulnerable and broad in it's topics, from sickness to love to art to queerness. Andrea is great at placing emotions where they need to go, being serious and sad, but also revelling in the joy of life and adding a few laughs. At the end, I felt content and proud. Even though this is the only Andrea Gibson book I've read, I felt like I had seen so much that they had gone through, but also the person they have become.