Book Review: Big Fat Brown Bitch

Big Fat Brown Bitch
By Tusiata Avia
Review by Maia

Ōtautahi poet royalty Tusiata Avia strikes again with this juicy, satirical and politically outraged collection. Avia delivers striking criticisms with wit and candour, revealing the brutality of the colonial systems that abuse and exploit our marginalised communities. She specifically narrates her experience with the healthcare system following an accident which broke both her feet. These poems lead with an open heart, pleading with surrender and screaming for justice on the same page and anyone who is watching the world around them can feel Avia’s frustration.

She responds directly to the unrelenting, hysterical backlash from her 2020 collection The Savage Coloniser with reliably audacious hilarity. Her words are theatrical, imaginative and grounded as she name-drops NZ politicians and their continuous inadequacies with a sneer. Anyone who can piss David Seymour off this much is worth the read.

You may also like: Poor People With Money by Dominic Hoey, Killer Rack by Sylvan Spring, or any of Avia’s other brilliant collections.