Ever wish you could experience poetry’s artistry with a novel’s narrative structure? Books written in verse are medium-bending forms that open up new horizons in how one can tell a story. Here are some exceptional stories that brilliantly blend these two literary forms, and create an enthralling reading experience.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
This critically acclaimed and award-winning book tells the autobiographical story of Jacqueline Woodson’s coming of age during the 60s and 70s. A young Jacqueline feels like a girl without a true home, with her upbringing being split between South Carolina and New York. It grapples with her African American identity during a time of immense tension. The Jim Crow era is coming to an end, yet its remains are still potent. At the same time, a Civil Rights movement is gaining traction. During this charged historical moment, Jacqueline is just a girl, coming into her own, finding her voice, and discovering a love of storytelling.
A Warning About Swans by R.M. Romero
It is the 1880s in Bavaria, and after being created by the dreams of Odin, Hilde and her sisters each are gifted a cloak that turns them into swans. Yet the magical garment comes with an unwanted gift, allowing Hilde to see and guide the souls of the dead into the afterlife, or the “Other Wood.” When helping the soul of a hawk, Hilde stumbles across Baron Maximilian von Richter. He is the son of a former King’s favorite who has been left with no inheritance. Hilde is immensely taken with Richter’s thirst for life and makes a deal with him. She will help the Baron achieve his dream of wealth and he will ensure she never has to guide dead souls again in the “Other Wood.”
Hilde now lives in the human world as part of the court of King Ludwig II in Munich, but adjusting isn’t easy. In an attempt to fit in, she commissions a portrait by Franz Mendelson, a non-binary Jewish painter. She is shocked that the artist has depicted her with swan wings. She becomes drawn to the warm-hearted painter, but Richter is growing increasingly possessive. After her cloak goes missing, Franz must use his own gifts to help her. This whimsical fairytale blends the style of the Brothers Grimm with the story of Swan Lake and The Last Unicorn.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Xiomara Batista feels voiceless and can’t hide in Harlem. After some changes to her body, the young Afro-Latina woman becomes guided by her inner fierceness. She begins finding her voice on the page, using a leather notebook to harness all her anger and love — like her crush on Aman from bio. Her journal becomes her secret confidant, sharing with it everything she can’t with her religiously strict family. Her double life gets harder to hide when she gets asked to join her school’s slam poetry club. But the energy and power Xiomara feels when reading and sharing her poetry is too hard to give up.
Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner
Our protagonist lives a normal life in Brooklyn with her cat, boyfriend, and works of poetry. Her words provide her with an outlet to unpack her secret dreams and desires: the older women who seduce her, a kiss shared with a friend. But they’re just that — dreams. They aren’t real, until one night when she makes the acquaintance of an entrancing woman at a bar which quickly turns into an affair. What follows are a series of couplets unpacking desire, sexuality, kinks, and power. Millner uses the structural form of the couplet to immense advantage, using it to mirror the dynamics of relationships.
Dreaming of You by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Want a campy and absurdist story with resurrection, romance, and music? Young Latinx poet, Melissa, in the throes of heartbreak, decides to hold a seance to try to bring pop star Selena Quintanilla back from the dead. What follows is a wild ride filled with singing Greek choruses, spirits with a penchant for gossip, a prom full of deceased celebrities, a shadow self, and a hellish karaoke performance. The hybrid and fragmented story unpacks identity, queerness, womanhood, and the pangs of love.
This experimental blend of poetry and novels makes for fascinating stories told in brilliant ways. These books written in verse are sure to inspire you with their craft and artistry. Whether you’re looking for a YA coming-of-age story, a unique whimsical fairytale, or an exploration of sex and desire, these novels in verse are sure to astound you with their emotional core and inventive storytelling.
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