Review: Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh

ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley.

Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh is a novel in verse following Ada through multiple points of her life, exploring who she is and how her life events have shaped her. Ada is a hardworking, creative young woman who is navigating her relationships with her parents, and the isolation she feels, and her seeking connection to others.

I will start by saying that I choose to read this because I have been looking to read more poetry. I am not sure this was the correct place for me to start. I think I chose a novel in verse because I thought the familiar structure would be a good choice for getting used to reading poetry. I do not think this format was really for me. I wanted more exposition, which seems unfair to the poetry aspect, but I just found myself constantly wanting to know more about Ada, more about what was going on. I did completely understand the emotions of the book; I liked that aspect a lot; the poetry obviously was a good format for conveying the tone and emotion of the world.

I did quite often feel as if I had missed something and would go back a few pages and reread. This, I am almost sure, was just rooted in my desire for more information and not actually confusing writing. But it happened quite a few times. I also felt like a lot of the storylines introduced were not really closed, which isn't inherently bad, but if you pick this book up, be aware that the story is much more character and feeling focused and doesn't totally close every plotline.

That is no to say that the book didn't have an adequate ending; the ending was nice. It gave a feeling of decision and action that was very fitting for the story. Ada had begun to make the choices of deciding who she is and who she wants the world to see her as. That is a very nice ending; I just did want to see a little more of that action.

I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph. I would recommend this book to people who like both YA and poetry, to those interested in books that closely follow an emotional journey, and to folks who like a clear coming of age narrative.