“Cassandra Troyan’s Blacken Me Blacken Me, Growled begins by thinking at the very edge of what we call language, listening intently to what desire and disgust sound like there. In this remarkable book, the inchoate flails and wails of pleasure and spectacular pain finally do focus—we aren’t alone even when we beg or squeal. Our lovers are there, our family is there, our community is there, lack and excess, hot filth, cum and treasure. When so much writing conforms to capital’s imperative that we enervate ourselves in our art works, our communities, our sex lives, our sense of what is possible, Blacken Me is a wise reminder that we are not alone, that 'we need the shit,' that 'we are the shit that motivates our bones.' ”–Brandon Brown