"[Queen's] narration glimmers with humor, frankness, and vulnerability. She beautifully balances empathy for her past self with a trenchant analysis of the systems that shaped her life story. A poetic page-turner of a memoir about a Black woman's time in the Navy."

"Khadijah Queen writes with majestic grace about growing up the hard way, in sometimes searing circumstances, and then joining the Navy to pay for college. We watch in awe as she chases down her dream, undeterred by the many obstacles placed in her way, to become a literary star. This book is a testament to her grit, resolve, and unstoppable drive, and offers yet another example of Queen's blazing talent. This memoir shimmers, it is so good."--Helen Thorpe, author of Just Like Us, Soldier Girls, The Newcomers, and Finding Motherland

"Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea is yet another extension of the brilliant universe of Khadijah Queen, one where the pages are richly populated. With people, with places, with rich, granular details. And, with all of that population, still, an attention to and affection for each single part of the larger machine, which makes Queen's narrative world-building feel like it is reaching for you, demanding you to enter, and be walked through each place, each life, each passage of time. This book is a gift." --Hanif Abdurraqib, MacArthur Fellow, National Book Award finalist, and author of There's Always This Year and A Little Devil in America

"Throughout, Queen is by turns vulnerable and fierce, making resonant observations about the complexities of war, womanhood, and perseverance. Readers will find much to admire."--Publishers Weekly