Written in August of 2021, Me (Moth) was written by Amber Mcbride while she was teaching at Virginia State University. Ms. McBride was always a poet at heart, working as a media assistant at Furious Flowers poetry institute, the most prevalent black poetry academy in the U.S. Before her career as a professor and author of young adult novels, she was raised by her African American family to be deeply spiritual in a tribal manner, believing in ghosts, spirits and all things that she couldn’t see. “The universe is, after all, 95% dark energy and dark matter; it would be strange to trust the 5% of reality.” Amber McBride. Today her students call her Ms. Mermaid because of her blue-dyed hair and obsession with mermaids, sirens, and Mama Wata. 

This spirituality and poetic mind led to the conception of Me (Moth), a young adult poetry book about Moth, a black/Native American woman with a long scar on her face and chest. While Moth was raised by her grandfather, who was a rootworker and shaman after his death, she was raised by her aunt Jackie, who was abusive if not negligent to Moth. During her daily rhythm work and dancing to the “music of the world”, she meets Sani, a troubled boy with problems with addiction and pills, likely because of his neurodivergence. After meeting Sani, an equally minded individual to Moth, they set up a relationship and go on a road trip through the United States and an internal monolog ensues about each location. 

The book, as stated above is organized like a collection of poems, and this style of writing did throw me off a little when dialogue between two characters was put on other sides of the page. Despite this slight annoyance, the style of writing and word organization in stanzas instead of paragraphs only reinforces how the main characters of Moth and Sani think compared to everyone else. Sani throughout the book calls his mind fractured and constantly swarming with thoughts and sometimes, these thoughts can intrude on what he thinks and sees as real. “I have a waterfall in my mind. & it pours over my eyes. & makes the world tilt different. More colorful, more vast.” Sani, 210. I’m not a psychiatrist, but that seems to describe chronic psychosis, where a patient suffers from auditory/visual hallucinations. The only real disappointing factor in this novel was that the big, climactic finish of the book dropped the emotion and some figurative language that was so prevalent in the rest of the book.

This is one of the few books that I have ever read that made the protagonist different and quirky without making it seem forced. Ms.McBride does an excellent job explaining the personality of Moth and how she sees the world. The ancestors that she was told to respect are ingrained in her life, saying that the ancestors never help back or reward her for her offerings. “Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, owned one-hundred and thirty-five bodies. He didn’t own their souls though.” Monticello Palntaion plaquer p.94. At the same time, she resents her living ancestors in her life for telling her what to do, Devoting an entire 2 pages consisting of a list of aunt Jackie’s rules of the house and the Moth’s rules of the house (completely contradicting the rules Jackie). This hypocritical respect drives the conflict of this story (pun intended) as the primary characters go on a road trip and tell stories, beginning the theme of self-discovery mentioned before.

Overall, I would say that Me (Moth) is a wonderful read for young adults. The characters are well-rounded and Ms. McBide did a wonderful job ad getting on the level of the target audience and making the adults seem to like the bad guys until both the parent and Moth learn that they are perfect just the way they are. It feels refreshing to find a novel that is organized like a poem and accurately tells the story of a character that is neurodivergent (as a neurodivergent myself). The story overall felt good to read, safe for the ending where the writing gets more literal. 

8/10