"Ashe Vernon pulls back the layers of the spectacular wound of being human and underneath, there are bruises. Vernon flinches at the truth but forges ahead and there, they find their strength- in the honesty and in the brutality. Vernon has written a collection that prays of misplaced love and preacher fathers and the shade of Texas summers and a body that never feels quite like your own. It is beautiful and astounding and it hurts. Come here for the youth, for the apologies, for the optimism, and for the astounding love." - Fortesa Latifi, author of We Were Young and No Matter the Time