Because I Am Furniture

Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas.

It took me about two and a half hours to finish this book. I devoured every single page. I couldn't put it down. And I didn't want to.

Here's the book description written on the book's cover flap:

ANKE'S FATHER IS ABUSIVE. But not to her. He attacks her brother and sister, but she is ignored, forced to be an invisible witness in a house of horrors. Believing she isn't worthy of even the worst kind of attention, Anke feels about as significant as the living room sofa. Until she makes the volleyball team at school. In a sport where you have to yell "Mine!" to play the ball, Anke learns for the first time how to make herself heard. As her confidence on the court builds, she finds a voice she didn't know existed. And it's not long before she realizes that if she can make people hear her while she's playing volleyball, then maybe she can be heard at home, too. 

     Author Thalia Chaltas leads you straight to the heart of Anke's darkly complicated world in this devastatingly powerful novel in poems.

SPOILER ALERT! Sort of. Maybe. So go read the book :)
I have way too many thoughts running through my mind right now. They are racing a mile a minute due to the amazing-ness of this book and the rapidity of which I finished it. I love Anke. (Pronounced Ahn-Keh.) Her journey is incredible. Through the pain, she finds her own strength. And voice.

This is the very first page. And I was hooked...

This is one of my favorite parts of this book. Anke is ready. To truly speak up. Here she's talking to her sister, Yaicha.

"Every day,
every day he rips you open,
chips off pieces week by week,
till a few years from now you are not even a 
   mouthful of sawdust.
A drawn-out killing.
Well, I'm tired of all of us doing nothing.
He has to be stopped."

"Nobody can stop him."

"Nobody can stop him?
Good.
To him I have always been
Nobody."

And I LOVE this. Oh, her words! Her descriptive, beautiful words!

Staring into the starred darkness
makes me feel
stronger,
a simple truth.

With all the
dizzy galaxies
           hot gases
                     dust at the speed of light
                              neutrinos running through
                                  everything,

no matter how powerful someone is
           here on Earth
they are just as small as me
to the vast greatness of
outer
space.