Trauma for Sale is Roxana Preciado’s collection of autobiographical poetry, black and white artwork, and personal photographs. The collection reveals her ongoing struggles with mental health, past traumas, and her strength through it all. Aiding her in her revelations are her personal photographs and her artwork from childhood to now.
The collection is Preciado’s most candid and honest work to date. It brings the reader into her world and personal life by sharing the most private parts of her life. Sharing with the reader her triumphs, failures and a glance of what life is like for a once discarded youth turned success story. Never shying away from discussing taboo and controversial topics, the collection is a display of bravery and vulnerability.
Trauma For Sale by Roxana Preciado is a very intimate collection of poetry that comes with black and white artworks and personal photographs of the author. Having gone through numerous traumatic experiences in her life, she has finally conquered her demons and is making a beautiful life for herself and her life partner, and her healing continues. Sold, the first poem in this collection sets the tone of the book. Deal of the day/The special/Not special in any way/Self-destructive in every way/So anxious and afraid, it goes. The last poem, on the other hand speaks of hope, growing up through pain and suffering and thriving, ending the book on a painful but positive note.
Roxana Preciado’s Trauma For Sale, a collection of beautiful poetry written from 1998 to 2020, is both compelling and sincere and was inspired by the author’s painful life journey. The honesty in this collection of poetry is the one thing that really strikes me and it is perhaps what makes it original. The eye-catching artworks and personal photographs complement and enhance the poems, and the result is a story that unravels in similes and metaphors. Celebrating her roots in I Love Brown Babies, Preciado writes: I love their soulful brown eyes/They wear their various shades of brown, like armor/Their powerful cries fill me with pride. Trauma For Sale is actually a narration of various phases of the author’s life that she fears the most and writing them makes her a whole person, warts and all. It is highly inspiring.
-Reviewed By Maria Victoria Beltran for Readers’ Favorite
Roxana Preciado 