Rae considers the intersection of history and modernity in the American South in her provocative debut. “The South will birth a new kind of haunting in your black girl-ness,” she warns the reader. These works range widely in form, including traditional lyric poems, list poems, lyric fragments, and found forms, such as the guidebook. As the book unfolds, these pieces become “gadgets that measure moments, that capture time with a broken gasp.” Rae’s strength lies in blending cultural memory while forging a new narrative all her own.