'Pomegranate' gives voice to Ranita Atwater, a queer Black woman charting a hopeful course amid the turbulence of reentry into society after prison. With three years of sobriety and her sentence nearing its end, Ranita's resolve is to stay clean, reclaim her children, and shed the identity solely defined by addiction. Outside the bars, Ranita grapples with temptations and the harsh realities of life as a marginalized individual in America. However, the memories of her fiery romance with Maxine linger, illuminating possibilities of self-reinvention and new beginnings. Helen Elaine Lee's novel is both a poignant and invigorating saga of personal struggle, societal prejudice, and the unyielding pursuit of one's own narrative against the backdrop of racial and sexual identity.