cebtuje's review
5.0
This is easily one of my favorite horror books I've ever read. It's sweet, sticky, dreamy, bloody. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started reading, but it definitely wasn't this. Every page surprised me and got under my skin in all the best ways. I could easily read this twenty more times, and probably will.
poigraph's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.5
3.5 stars, good. I’ll start by saying that I’m not the audience for this book, and that’s probably reflected in my rating. The book feels dreamlike or maybe nightmarelike, or yes the hallucinations of an “insomnia-plagued mind.” Its visceral, though not so much disturbing as highly unsettling. This brings me to what I appreciated the most, which was the repetition of certain passages or parts of a passage that became an anchor throughout the storm. In the end though I don’t know if I liked the thought of the rebirth circling back to the beginning since it was so hard won to begin with. An interesting read if you are able to let go of comfort? I’m not sure, just that you have to let go and let yourself be drawn into this novella.
This is no Eden. This is Gethsemane.
tipsybookworm's review
5.0
"Do all tears taste like loss? I am bloated with self-loathing"
This book is insane, in an incredible and mind-fucking way. I have been a long-time fan of Emily's writing so I was very excited to read her novella, Swallow, and it did not disappoint. I was on the edge of my seat, often disorientated and with my jaw on the floor at the end of each chapter.
What cements Emily as an incredible writer is her ability to write a character whose emotions go beyond the pages. As I was reading I could feel the narrator's dizziness, fatigue and urgency throughout my body and often caught myself holding my own breath.
And don't even get me started on the writing! Exploring themes like time, birth and rebirth, Swallow is written entirely in lyrical prose that is both hauntingly beautiful and disturbing. I will definitely be reading this novella again in the near future just to take in the prose and annotate! I cannot wait to read more of Emily's upcoming work.
I recommend this to readers who enjoyed the lyrical prose of Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" and the 'hysteria' (for lack of better words) of Mona Awad's "All's Well."
Thank you to the author for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is insane, in an incredible and mind-fucking way. I have been a long-time fan of Emily's writing so I was very excited to read her novella, Swallow, and it did not disappoint. I was on the edge of my seat, often disorientated and with my jaw on the floor at the end of each chapter.
What cements Emily as an incredible writer is her ability to write a character whose emotions go beyond the pages. As I was reading I could feel the narrator's dizziness, fatigue and urgency throughout my body and often caught myself holding my own breath.
And don't even get me started on the writing! Exploring themes like time, birth and rebirth, Swallow is written entirely in lyrical prose that is both hauntingly beautiful and disturbing. I will definitely be reading this novella again in the near future just to take in the prose and annotate! I cannot wait to read more of Emily's upcoming work.
I recommend this to readers who enjoyed the lyrical prose of Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" and the 'hysteria' (for lack of better words) of Mona Awad's "All's Well."
Thank you to the author for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
kristianamr's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Swallow by Emily Perkovich is a lexical delight, a special piece of poetic prose which interweaves motifs of saccharine skies, the soil we plant and bury in, the depths of drowning and the stickiness of blood.
Although Perkovich’s beautifully graphic style is evident throughout Swallow, this storytelling is unlike her previous poetry collections and unlike anything else I have read this year. I could attempt to place this work alongside Plath’s The Bell Jar, Vuong’s On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous and Angela Carter’s short story, Master, for its dreamlike quality as it moves rapidly and unforgivingly through human experience, emotion and the intangible. But the fantastical quality in Swallow ensures it is unique. Special.
For me, I found the surface treatment of insomnia superb; especially in how Perkovich deals with lucid dreaming/lucidity when sleep deprived. But this is just one layer of Swallow’s story. The imagery is phenomenal; the narrator’s visceral experience of growing wings, death, being consumed, torn apart and rebirthed are breathtaking explorations of the psyche, our inner selves and our attempts to live and grow into the world around us.
Perkovich herself states this is the best work she has written so far, and I have to agree. It reaches a new height of storytelling, being unafraid of keeping its reader in the shadows. Swallow is a work to luxuriate in. I took my time, twenty pages at a time, simply to savour the descriptions, the honest and blunt first person narrative, and the wonderful feeling of never knowing where it was going, even as motifs returned time and time again.
It is brilliant. It is beautiful. And again, it is truly special. Swallow by Emily Perkovich is an absolute treat!
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