Book Review: A Bathful of Kawakawa and Hot Water

A Bathful of Kawakawa and Hot Water
by Hana Pera Aoake
Review by Maia

Aoake gives us a fierce collection that experiments with a wide variety of poetic forms, moving seamlessly between striking emotive confessions and the historical narratives that inform them. With witty, honest and imaginative social commentary, these poems are not shy about sharing the tenderness and rage of navigating a colonised world and body. Aoake demands your attention, enchants you to join them on the chase and just when you think you’ve caught up they surprise you again. These words stay with you. A collection that grounds you in its soil before igniting an internal fire only to burn alongside you.