[1] The book's title doubly refers to an Emily Dickinson line, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" as well as to a racial slur against people of Asian descent.

In eight sections, the book's poems tackle language and racial identity while making mentions of both western and eastern artists like Philip K. Dick and Li Shangyin, respectively.

[1] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly stated "Yau explores artistic process and the limits of communication, all under the specter of anti-Asian hate and racism" and concluded that "This wise and sometimes ominous collection shines.

[4] In Plume, Timothy Liu reflected on John Yau "as a bad-ass boy to emulate" for much of his "reading and writing life".

Ultimately, Yau saw that the book wasn't merely just about being Asian American, or about being pigeonholed into ethnic identity, but rather about something much more profound and beyond: "Intimations of mortality suffuse these pages.