The Sun and her Flowers - Rupi Kaur

"From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honouring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.

Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms."

This is my first foray into the world of Rupi Kaur and to be honest I have mixed feelings. 

Her simple language and short sentence poems hit hard and let the reader fill in the blanks form their own history and pain. The sections on immigration hit me surprisingly deeply, coming from an immigrant family myself.

You get the impression Rupi is still learning how to be a woman and an adult. She's still trying to find her place in the world.  It's simple yet also very beautiful. Rupi illustrates her poems with simplistic drawings that help to get her point across. This latest collection touches on sex, abuse, culture, religion, gender etc. The stand out poem is called Home. This poem is striking and quite frankly amazing. It's worth getting the book just for this poem alone. The use of description within this piece is just outstanding. A truly phenomenal piece of writing. It's not a pleasant read but it's a poem I believe every woman should read no matter what their circumstances are. Rupi has the ability to pack a hearty punch even when she is only writing a short poem. 

However I found some of the poems a little too short/ vapid and recognised them from other modern authors. I also found it difficult to separate her personal experiences from a "collective" trauma of her female South Asian ancestors. Obviously this would make it no less valid but I would still be interested to know who the poems are truly about. 

Age Rating 15+. Very mature content.