Review: Anger Is Only a Shadow

Anger Is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn’t know GR was finally giving us an option to give fractional star ratings, so this book is now the first to truly get an official fractional rating from me with what Gordon Ramsay would call “a very strong four point five.” Mixing poetry and prose as is her way, Acevedo returns to the YA sphere with a new story about Lil, who’s wound up on court ordered supervision with some very strict regulators down in old DC, all while she works to deepen connections with new friends, let go of the toxic old ones, and also to find out what the hell is happening to her brother Aldwin, who’s clearly having a severe crisis (it’s easy to guess what his particular condition is, but the story doesn’t confirm it until nearly the end.) Additionally, Acevedo puts in a lot of focus on Afro-Dominican culture as usual, but also on the Indigenous Salvadoran culture of Lil’s mom and her family, who still speak some Nahua in addition to Spanish. I really hope to see this one making a big splash at the literary awards the way Acevedo’s books usually do…

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