I recently read AJ Turner’s book titled “Breathe”, which focuses on the themes of self-growth and resilience. These themes are ever important in the times we are living in, when the world is in unrest and we struggle to make sense of the chaos. Turner does an amazing job of providing readers insight into how to grow, stay grounded, and rebuild.

The novel follows the story of Georgia and her journey from summertime New York City to an isolated mountain cabin in rural Virginia. At this cabin, Georgia is faced with obstacles she has to overcome personally, which serves to be the platform for self-growth. Through this journey, we see how she learns to trust in herself and her own intuition, allowing her to heal her past pains and allowing her to evolve to be her best self.

Throughout the novel, Turner uses vivid and accurate language to help give insight and understanding into Georgia’s character and her physical and mental journey. She is incredibly descriptive, allowing the reader to feel like they’re right there with Georgia as she breathes in and out every step of the way.

Turner also does a great job of using symbolism throughout the novel to really develop the characters and plot. In particular, I liked the use of the sun and moon and how it can symbolize different things in different stages of Georgia’s life. The sun to represent moments of joy and newfound strength, and the moon to represent more emotional turmoil and stumbling blocks in her journey.

Overall, “Breathe” by AJ Turner is a beautiful story of growth and resilence. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a book that provides some perspectivce on the journey of life and how important it is to remain grounded while rising. Turner did an amazing job of creating a story that is both uplifting yet relatable.

Such a powerful book of poetry, the writing was filled with such power and held such emotion, I was mesmerised by each story told.

This is a great anthology, very moving. I found it an emotional read. I think this book would be a great stimulus for discussion in book groups or at university level to pick a poem and discuss.

This was very beautiful, uplifting and powerful. Loved the passion the author had and I could definitely see it when reading the poems.

Breathe was a collection of poems that were an incredible expression of life as a black woman. Turner expressed the anger and frustration experienced in just living and being racially profiled, but also the beauty and grace of living unapologetically Black.

This collection of poetry made me cry so hard. There is truth in the poems that need to be preached. It almost want to go to a public park, stand on a soapbox and just read/sign the poems. Not just brown people go through this every day. Deaf people have to go through this too. I know of this because it has happened to me. All colors of the rainbow and all colors of life go through this daily. One thing I have to say is, BE PROUD OF YOUR COLOR AND YOUR DISABILITY, I AM!!! STAND UP FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS. This book needs to be read by everyone.

I got a free copy of the book and is voluntarily writing a review

I enjoyed reading Breathe. It kept me entertained and hooked the whole time.
Thank you Netgalley for ARC in exchange of my honest feedback

i know where this came from and i really loved the poems about black skin, i just hate it when people make everything about god, that was the reason why i didn't connect complete with the book.

Oh boy. Look. I believe in God in some form. I pray. But I cannot for the life of me take all of this Jesus stuff. I really thought I was getting into something else here. And there were flashes of that collection I thought I was picking up, about police brutality and modern racism and American society, but...even then the voice wasn't doing a thing for me. It's a style that I just cannot gel with, and when every other poem or line is about casting wicked-doers to hell or finding grace in God or loving Jesus, I mean, I am happy for you to have strength and grace in your personal religion, I just also find it boring as hell and I don't want to read a bunch of sappy poems about what a good devoted Christian you are.

I think religious awakenings, musings etc work best for me when they're placed in intricate fiction and when they don't feel like they're preaching at me, trying to convert me, or just weakly pandering to me. I genuinely believe religious fiction and Christian fiction and writings in general can be really good, I just think it's also very very rare and very hard to find.

I'm gonna give this two stars, one for the raw emotion and energy, because there is definitely a lot of passion here, and one for the intent, because it's clearly very good intent and there's a lot of heart, but I just wish I'd known going in that this was 100% Christian faith poetry over social commentary (although I guess from a Christian perspective they're the same thing lol) because I would have known it wasn't for me and avoided.

Can't win 'em all.

I liked the own-voices aspects of this book. The poetry was nicely lyrical and worked with the way society is right now and has been. I loved the in-direct pointing to the BLM movements. Overall, I liked it.

Wonderfully written, emotionally raw and unapologetic. These ports wrap up the struggles of being an African American. Highly recommend.

Wonderful collection of heavy hitting poems. The collection focuses on racial injustice and uplifting melanated people with spiritual words. I enjoyed the scriptures that were delicately woven into some of the poems. My favorite poems were Hair Power, B3 Woman, and Pillow Talk.

The author expressed so much raw emotion and illustrated the pain of marginalized people. I appreciate wonderful peace of writhing and the poems that gave inspiration.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an advanced release copy for an exchange of my honest review/ opinion of the book.

The poems were passionate and you can really feel the pain and anger in the poets words. The message is an incredibly important one.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Breathe is a short book of poems that pack a punch. A. J. Turner has a gift within her poetry writing and I hope to read more from her going forward. Covering some important and current topics, this book makes you feel and be there in the moment. My favourites were Crown, B-3 women and Born Blind and Been Through, and I found such inspiration throughout this collection. I'd love to listen to an audio of this narrated by the author as poetry read aloud is so much more powerful and this is powerful just being read. You can feel the rawness, pain and passion coming from the author in every one of these poems and I'm so glad I got the chance to read this amazing short collection.

Thank you, NetGalley for this poetry collection.

This collection is powerful and you can tell how meaningful the author writes because it shows. Meanwhile, there were poems that caught my interest, like Crown and Pillow Talk. It's a quick read with images that are direct. The last poem summed up the collection as a whole, and I loved how it was the perfect poem to close the book. I did enjoy the authentic emotions of these injustices & the frustration and anger.

No me molesta que haya usado lo que pasó recientemente en Estados Unidos, me molesta que siempre recurriera a la misma herramienta para "rimar". Era como si lo hubiese escrito un nene de 12 años

While I could really feel the author‘s pain in their lines and think it is absolutely necessary to listen to their voice, the way the content is discussed doesn’t really add much to the discourse. Capital letters and quoting Rihanna don’t make good art — this felt more like an emotional rant and not like a poetry collection (not that poetry cannot be an emotional rant, but the challenge is to distance yourself enough to carefully construct the poems).

Breathe is a short book of poems. They are thought provoking, flow like a river and religiously easy to read but the subject matter is the harsh reality of racism, #icantbreathe There are also gorgeous poems of celebrations #thethreebs

This collection is in your face with facts, anguish, rage and a whole lot of words that we shout out loud in our head but never through our mouths as the oppressed.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

This poetry collection was beautifully written, thought provoking and extremely inspiring. Each poem was powerful in its own way and you could truly tell that the author was writing from her heart. Two poems that particularly stuck out to me were "Crown" and "B-3 woman".
I truly loved every page of this and I will definetely be on the lookout for future works by this author!