review: Truth Is: A Novel in Verse

Tite: Truth Is: A Novel in Verse
Author: Hannah V. Sawyerr
Date: Amulet/Abrams; 2025
Main character: Truth Bangura

Hannah V. Sawyerr is a Sierra Leonean American poet, storyteller, and author. She has received much acclaim for her work as a poet, including being recognized as the Youth Poet Laureate of Baltimore in 2016. Through the work of authors like Elizabeth Acevedo and Joy McCullough, Hannah realized that story could be delivered in verse form, a style that has real appeal for her.  She explains that, “one of my favorite parts about writing in verse is being able to zero in on a particular feeling or emotion and I find that being able to tell a story through poetry really lends itself to that. Whether it be through the words I share on the page, or the words I choose to leave off of the page.” She debuted as a YA author in 2023 with All the Fighting Parts, a story about Amina overcoming the trauma of abuse and learning to fight back. Her second novel, Truth Is, is a pro choice novel withTruth finding her voice and learning how to step up, speak out, and make positive choices for herself.

Truth is a high school senior living with her divorced, overbearing mother. Truth has been an academically poor performing student and now, she’s faced with what to do with herself after graduation. College? Work? Community college? Have this baby? Get to know her own father? She joins a poetry group, and in this little community, she finds her people and her voice.

This lyrical novel expresses Truth’s final year of high school in sections that are labeled first, second, and thirt trimester with choices becoming clearer, and easier for her to make over time. Readers begin to realize the emotional impact of developing a poem, just at Truth did, with worksheets that are provided in the book. Hannah reminds readers what a powerful tool poetry is because it connects us both to ourselves and others.

Truth Is was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Hannah narrates the audio version of the book that releases in January, 2026.

Be well and do good

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