This was a lovely debut collection of poems, with Lau exploring her intersecting identities (ranging from being queer to being a first-generation immigrant), many of which tied to the sense of isolation she has felt. I was especially taken to how Lau shared her grief when she reflected on the sacrifices her family made when they immigrated to Canada juxtaposed to the rejection she faced from her family due to her queerness. It’s not to say that other queer poets of the Asian diaspora haven’t written about this, but there was a particular frankness in dealing with grief in Lau’s poems that stood out to me, perhaps because she explicitly acknowledged the influence of trauma from religion in all of this.

I will say that I didn’t think there was anything remarkable about the form or language of the poems, nor did I feel that this collection came together as well as it could have. Some poems felt slightly out-of-place and/or lacked emotional impact for me, but it could very well be a me thing.

Some favorites: “Going Home,” “In the Name of Love,” “Letter to Longing,” “My Grief Is a Winter,” “Ginseng, Winter Melon, Lotus Root,” “The Look of Love, as Seen by Eve Polastri,” “Solidarity,” and “Remedy”