charshorrorcorner's review
5.0
The entire time I was listening to this poetry collection, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was in the back of my mind. HYSTERIA is about women and their likelihood of falling victim to men, to the world, to their children...and back again to the men. Unlike Gilman's story though, in HYSTERIA, the women often rise up and take what's due. I loved it!
I've admitted it before, but I will again here so we're clear, poetry is generally not my thing. But women are-especially strong women, women who have been through things in their life, women for whom life has not been easy. Most of this volume focuses on them, which is why, (I think), it speaks to me so intimately.
There are a lot of poems within and I can't get into all of them here, but I especially loved GREED, PLAYMATE OF THE NIGHT and GUARDIAN ANGEL:
"...lock me up somewhere else/you say the wrong thing around here, people start to think you're crazy, like madness is some contagion you breathe in through the air/I just told them that sweet Jezebel didn't like it when the men talk to her like that/when they visited her in her cell and touched her pretty face/ran their fingers through her silky hair/they beat me to get out my crazy..."
I found Stephanie Wytovich's prose to be killer: in bringing to mind vivid renderings of women-abused, crazy, strong, wild, beautiful, ugly, willful, sexy and with TEETH. Don't turn your back on these women, especially if you've done them wrong in the past. At the same time, some of these ladies are kind and nurturing, or at least they were... before they were diagnosed with HYSTERIA.
Highly recommended for fans of poetry and dark fiction!
*Thank you to Stephanie M. Wytovich for the free Audible copy of this book, in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*
I've admitted it before, but I will again here so we're clear, poetry is generally not my thing. But women are-especially strong women, women who have been through things in their life, women for whom life has not been easy. Most of this volume focuses on them, which is why, (I think), it speaks to me so intimately.
There are a lot of poems within and I can't get into all of them here, but I especially loved GREED, PLAYMATE OF THE NIGHT and GUARDIAN ANGEL:
"...lock me up somewhere else/you say the wrong thing around here, people start to think you're crazy, like madness is some contagion you breathe in through the air/I just told them that sweet Jezebel didn't like it when the men talk to her like that/when they visited her in her cell and touched her pretty face/ran their fingers through her silky hair/they beat me to get out my crazy..."
I found Stephanie Wytovich's prose to be killer: in bringing to mind vivid renderings of women-abused, crazy, strong, wild, beautiful, ugly, willful, sexy and with TEETH. Don't turn your back on these women, especially if you've done them wrong in the past. At the same time, some of these ladies are kind and nurturing, or at least they were... before they were diagnosed with HYSTERIA.
Highly recommended for fans of poetry and dark fiction!
*Thank you to Stephanie M. Wytovich for the free Audible copy of this book, in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*
exorcismofemilyreed's review
4.0
"Could not fuck the darkness any deeper / Into my head, letting demons run loose / In an imagination fueled by sadism."
Hysteria is a collection of dark poetry by Stephanie M. Wytovich. There are about 100 poems in this collection. This was the first collection I've read from Wytovich, and it was an enjoyable experience.
There's an overall theme of madness running through the poems. Some of them are specifically about asylum life, or what led people to the asylum. I didn't feel like all of the poems necessarily matched the theme, and I wish that a little bit more of them would have been connected.
My top 5 poems in Hysteria are Body Suit, Comatose, On My Terms, Patient Limb, and Straight Jacket. All of these are grim and a little disturbing. I loved them!
I think this is the first collection I've read in which the poems are in alphabetical order, and it made for a different experience since sometimes poems with similar topics were right next to each other instead of spread out throughout the book.
Stephanie's writing is grim and unsettling, and I love the images that she conjures with her poetry. There's a variety of emotions in this book - sadness, lust, jealousy, mania, and so much more. I really appreciated her boldness with these poems. She hits on some heavy or taboo topics in this collection, and it was so fun to see the different places she went. Hysteria is so good at making the reader uncomfortable, yet dying to flip the page to the next poem. This collection is dark, and some of the poems are meant to shock you.
I have another one of Stephanie's collections on my shelf, and I can't wait to get to it soon! I had a lot of fun reading Hysteria.
Hysteria is a collection of dark poetry by Stephanie M. Wytovich. There are about 100 poems in this collection. This was the first collection I've read from Wytovich, and it was an enjoyable experience.
There's an overall theme of madness running through the poems. Some of them are specifically about asylum life, or what led people to the asylum. I didn't feel like all of the poems necessarily matched the theme, and I wish that a little bit more of them would have been connected.
My top 5 poems in Hysteria are Body Suit, Comatose, On My Terms, Patient Limb, and Straight Jacket. All of these are grim and a little disturbing. I loved them!
I think this is the first collection I've read in which the poems are in alphabetical order, and it made for a different experience since sometimes poems with similar topics were right next to each other instead of spread out throughout the book.
Stephanie's writing is grim and unsettling, and I love the images that she conjures with her poetry. There's a variety of emotions in this book - sadness, lust, jealousy, mania, and so much more. I really appreciated her boldness with these poems. She hits on some heavy or taboo topics in this collection, and it was so fun to see the different places she went. Hysteria is so good at making the reader uncomfortable, yet dying to flip the page to the next poem. This collection is dark, and some of the poems are meant to shock you.
I have another one of Stephanie's collections on my shelf, and I can't wait to get to it soon! I had a lot of fun reading Hysteria.
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