Reviews

Echidna by essa may ranapiri

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ellenchapman's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cassberegi's review

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challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

the_literarylinguist's review

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

This is a fascinating collection of poems about Echidna: the mythological mother of monsters. The poems tell the story of Echidna growing up and interacting with figures from various folklore and religious traditions, including Christianity.

I am not Maori, and a lot of the references went over my head; but I still really enjoyed this poetry collection. Echidna felt very human, and her story was very well tied to both the trans experience and the experience of growing up as a biracial Maori child (at least as far as I can tell, being neither). Several of the poems also had interesting experiments with form, being written in various shapes that themselves added to the experience of the story.

neex's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

basedgoth's review

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3.0

Echidna is a whole as multiverse of characters... Marvel is quaking

nibs's review

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emotional slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I've never read something like this before. I am relatively new to poetry, and this is my first encounter with storytelling through poetry in this sort of intertwined, cohesive way.

It's enchanting, like nothing else. Flowing through Echidna's life and her stories (also the story of Māui and Prometheus within was so beautiful too). This had been sitting on my shelf for 1.5 years, I so should have gotten to this sooner. It's amazing.

Also before reading this, I only knew of echidna the animal (turns out the animal is named after the Greek mother of monsters), which lead to a confusing first few pages.

stefhyena's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It took me a long time to warm to this book because it is difficult to read.

I went back and reread a lot and I allowed myself to nibble at it slowly like 90% cocoa, no sugar chocolate. I suspect I will read some of these poems again.

You do hae to read back and forth because the beginning only really makes sense in the context of the end but also that's the order it had to be in. Poetry can be a bitch that way.