dirtyrain's review against another edition
4.75
"lunacy is in your blood. it’s a fact. so you do your best to live alongside its snarl. push & push until you find room in that frantic brain to plant some kind of hope: your daughter upstairs, practicing the clarinet. this morning’s toast, its butter spread all the way to the edge. small mercies to help empty the beast."
gohjous's review
4.0
ohhh god. oh holy shit. oh i feel ill.
me when daughters who knew they would become terrible mothers, end up becoming their own mothers and wish they were more. so that they won't make another daughter who hates their mother.
me when daughters who knew they would become terrible mothers, end up becoming their own mothers and wish they were more. so that they won't make another daughter who hates their mother.
servemethesky's review
5.0
Definitely one of my favorite poetry collections I’ve read in 2019! McKibbens seems to find the right words every time, and kept taking my breath away over and over again. I read each poem twice (or more) because they packed such a potent emotional punch and put words together in such creative and perfect ways. This collection covers mental illness, family lineage, womanhood, sexuality, and so much more. I highly recommend it.
lelex's review
5.0
"I have always been a god-hammered girl."
This was incredible. It was powerful and angry and intense and about sexuality, mental illness, femininity, identity, and so much more. It kind of made my heart race.
My favorites were maybe this will explain my taste in men, the sandbox, the ghost's daughter speaks: white elephant, oath (blud litany), and una oración (bruja's soliloquy).
"I'd trace the broken landscape of my body and find God within myself."
"You have my permission not to love me. I am a cathedral made of dead bolts and I'd rather burn myself down than change the locks."
"What I once had mistaken for death was, instead, a door."
"I'll say it one more time, here, right now, one more time, with feeling: it was the only moment in this wretched life when a god was on my side."
"Listen: anything holy is not reversible. There isn't a man alive who could undo me."
This was incredible. It was powerful and angry and intense and about sexuality, mental illness, femininity, identity, and so much more. It kind of made my heart race.
My favorites were maybe this will explain my taste in men, the sandbox, the ghost's daughter speaks: white elephant, oath (blud litany), and una oración (bruja's soliloquy).
"I'd trace the broken landscape of my body and find God within myself."
"You have my permission not to love me. I am a cathedral made of dead bolts and I'd rather burn myself down than change the locks."
"What I once had mistaken for death was, instead, a door."
"I'll say it one more time, here, right now, one more time, with feeling: it was the only moment in this wretched life when a god was on my side."
"Listen: anything holy is not reversible. There isn't a man alive who could undo me."
mightymegan25's review
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Mental illness