Franny Choi’s collection of poems is a heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, excruciating dissection of Choi’s experiences that were borne out the COVID pandemic, her identity as a Korean-American, the generational and historic trauma that comes from both sides of that identity, and humanity’s race towards apocalypse.

Sorrow lines every utterance in this collection, a grief so personal yet so universal and profound that the reader doesn’t know which identity Choi is lashing out at at any given time. There is a beauty in the breaking waves that batter the vengeful vessel of Choi’s words, the ship simultaneously being the mourned for and the mourning body.

5/5, but would recommend preparing yourself mentally for raw, unforgiving, but most importantly, unyielding poetic expression.