Why it's essential
Written in verse and narrated by award-winning slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo, this is a powerful listen about expression and voice. The rhythmic, relentlessly energetic story unfolds in a hypnotic three-hour experience that is truly unique.
Featured in The best YA audiobooks for listeners of all ages.
What is The Poet X about?
Xiomara Batista feels silenced, even though she has plenty to say. Growing up with her twin brother, Xavier, in a strict Catholic family, she bristles against the restrictions imposed on her by her mother and writes furiously in her secret journal. When an invitation to an after-school poetry club and a crush on her lab partner put Xiomara in direct opposition of her mother's wishes, Xiomara must find the strength to use her voice to share her truth and her poetry.
Editor's review
In 2018, I was balancing a new job and multiple responsibilities, and my reading life was suffering. I had quite a commute, so I got into audiobooks as a way to sneak some reading into my new busy schedule. Earlier attempts at reading on audio had left me dissatisfied, because I didn't always care for the narration of a particular book or I found it too easy to let my mind wander while listening. Luckily for me, the first audiobook I turned to after I decided to give the format another shot was Elizabeth Acevedo’s then newly released and much buzzed about YA novel, The Poet X.
This novel-in-verse is narrated by the author, which isn't very common for young adult fiction and so came as a surprise. But after listening to this book just once, I truly believe that no one but the author could narrate this stunning novel, which simmers with truth and energy, and do it justice. Elizabeth Acevedo draws on her own experience growing up as the child of Dominican parents living in Harlem, New York, to create her main character. Xiomara is a force to be reckoned with and too often, seen as difficult, a problem to be fixed or someone to be controlled. Told from a young age "pero, tú no eres fácil," Xiomara has learned to stifle her thoughts, her questions, and in some cases, her creativity in order to satisfy her mother's exacting demands that she be a good Catholic girl.
Of course, keeping quiet and following her mother's rules can only work for so long. Xiomara's world opens up when she is invited to join an after-school poetry club—held at the same time as her religious Confirmation classes, a required extracurricular—and then starts to fall for a classmate that her mother most definitely will not approve of. The tension of her desires and the growing urgency of her poetic voice clash with the rigid expectations that her mother holds her to—expectations that feel unfair, especially compared to the leniency her twin brother is granted as a boy.
From the very first poem, I found myself mesmerized by Acevedo's powerful narration and her arresting writing. Xiomara's feelings about being expected to sit through Confirmation classes when she doesn’t fully believe in the messages exacted gives way to the universal experience of living in opposition to the authentic self. "Jesus feels like a friend who has suddenly become brand-new / who invites himself over too often / who texts me too much."
Acevedo's voice is equal turns playful and intense, vulnerable and stirring, and the emotion is tangible as she relates Xiomara's coming-of-age journey, which crescendos into a reckoning with who she is becoming. The author's background of competing in poetry slams since her teen years is evident in this performance—it's no wonder that the audiobook received both an Odyssey Award and AudioFile Earphones Award among numerous accolades and prestigious awards.
I consider myself lucky that The Poet X is the novel that opened my eyes—and ears—to the power of audiobooks. Acevedo's narration captured my attention so wholly I found myself sitting in my car, listening, long after I arrived at my destination. Elizabeth Acevedo has since published more novels and poetry, and, luckily for all of us, she's had a hand in narrating each one.
Did you know?
Elizabeth Acevedo was named the 2022 Young People's Poet Laureate and is a National Poetry Slam champion.
In addition to narrating all of her own audiobooks, Acevedo narrated the YA novel Pride by Ibi Zoboi.
The Poet X won 8 major awards, including the National Book Award, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Carnegie Medal, and was the fourth most-requested book at the New York Public Library in 2018.
What listeners said
"Brilliant! I don’t even know how to review this, in all honestly. Acevedo, who has earned herself favorite new author status in my eyes, has written ( in verse!!) the moving story of Xiomara. A girl just trying to figure herself out while living with an ultra-religious mom, a cinnamon roll brother, and a dad who pretty much stays out of matters at home. Acevedo did a marvelous with the narration. The emotion she put into this made the characters seem so unbelievably real. LISTEN TO IT!! You will not be disappointed." –Kiana, Audible listener
"Riveting. Heartfelt story of a young girl's struggle for expression in face of an overbearing mother, society that defines her in a certain way, and doubts about purpose and faith. Wow, what a story. Read by the author with brutal truth, hypnotic poetry, and a voice overflowing substance. One of the best books I've heard in a long time." –Austin, Audible listener
"A beautiful and relatable story told in verse, about a teenage girl reconciling with family, religion, sexuality and race. The author reads the audiobook herself and she is fierce. She becomes Xiomara and I would listen to her read anything. After listening to the audiobook I can’t imagine experiencing this book any other way." –Lilyfee, Audible listener
Quotes from The Poet X
"The world is almost peaceful when you stop trying to understand it."
"I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn't that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark."
"Just because your father's present, doesn't mean he isn't absent."
"Maybe, the only thing that has to make sense about being somebody's friend is that you help them be their best self on any given day. That you give them a home when they don't want to be in their own."
"Late into the night I write and the pages of my notebook swell from all the words I’ve pressed onto them. It almost feels like the more I bruise the page the quicker something inside me heals."
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About the author and performer
Elizabeth Acevedo is the 2022 Young People’s Poet Laureate, a National Poetry Slam Champion, and a New York Times bestselling author. Her debut novel, The Poet X won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland and has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops. She lives in Washington, DC.
