I started to review another book for this month, but I put that book down and picked up Black Girl Love instead, and I’m glad that I did. Black Girl Love is a series of fictional vignettes punctuated by the occasional poem. The poetry sets the tone for the author’s style, and the short stories are so vibrant in their imagery that I had to double-check for the ‘this is a work of fiction’ disclaimer. From running into the exgirlfriend at the club to having your wife twist your locs, from being the obsessed stalker to being the woman caught in an abusive relationship, Ms. Williams tells it all with poetic grace and a strong voice. Even the stories that may be triggering to read were still wonderfully rendered.
The version of Black Girl Love that I read still needed to be heavily re-edited. Had Ms. Williams been any less skilled as an author, I may have stopped reading due to the amount of spelling errors. However, I was so interested in the stories she wove that I read on and overlooked them. It does need some editing love, complete with a liberal sprinkling of commas – I saw another Lesbrarian recently lament the lack of the Oxford comma in one of her reviews, and I share in that lament – but after an editor goes over it with a fine-tooth comb, Black Girl Love will be a really powerful, wonderful piece of work. I look forward to seeing more from Anondra Williams in the future.
