lifesaverscandyofficial's review against another edition
not for me but keep in mind I’m a moron
julziez's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
stephaniekaykok's review against another edition
3.0
Poetry bundles, like short story anthologies, are difficult to rate because there are brilliant parts and less-brilliant parts, or at least parts I didn't appreciate quite as much. One poem in this bundle, "Save the World" (which is 64 pages long), was so stunning/innovative I was tempted to give the whole thing a four- or five-star rating.
But no, I restrained myself. There are 172 other pages, and among them, a good many quizzical moments. I can't say I really liked the whole bundle, but in it, I do see the seeds of a great poet.
And perhaps I'd like it better on a second reading.
But no, I restrained myself. There are 172 other pages, and among them, a good many quizzical moments. I can't say I really liked the whole bundle, but in it, I do see the seeds of a great poet.
And perhaps I'd like it better on a second reading.
jacob_wren's review against another edition
5.0
Give up the habit of weeping for yourself, says the woman to the man with the malady of death in the novel by Marguerite Duras.
The sex parts of good books are usually the worst parts, that is too bad about good books.
Some bad books have good sex in them. And sex that I can see is somebody else's.
I want to have the sex that's mine, that sex that I have, okay.
Time to tell the difference between what's emitted and what's left over and what was there in the first place.
.
firstiteration's review
4.0
A really strange book. It's rare I can sit down and read a book of poetry instead of preferring to read poems one at a time, spaced out, but this one was okay to sit down and read. I liked the first section the most and felt it was most successful. It made me feel awful, but because a lot of it rang so true, especially the parts about misogyny. The title of the volume, Mercury, felt really apt. It brings to my mind ideas about fluidity and change in people, which I felt some of the poems really spoke to. Strange, but worth reading.
corey's review
4.0
Everything has form.
You have form you asshole.
You have form you fucking asshole.
I think the above quote is wonderfully characteristic of the style and voice at work in this book. Simple, brilliant, profane, funny, wonderful. I don't know enough about poetry to give it a proper review but here's what I do know:
- This book (and it is a book--not merely a "collection", but a group of connected, self-refferential poems) is about alchemy, love, abjection, genitalia, oral sex, anal sex, metamorphoses, self-loathing, starvation, perversion, childbirth, contemporary film, nature, the unnatural, and of course, what it means, if anything, to write poetry in our times.
- This is worth reading for the long poem, "Save The World," alone. I think there is a perfect articulation of what it feels like to be alive right now in that piece.
- For what it's worth, I think Reines is at her best when she keeps things simple. And the poems themselves are never actually simple--they are more complex and deeply layered than I can even sometimes discern. But I do think the most eloquent poems are the ones in the later sections of the book, where the language is perhaps simpler, and where the author is cutting to the heart of the matter. The urgency, the intensity, of poems like "Baraka" are what make Reines worth reading.
You have form you asshole.
You have form you fucking asshole.
I think the above quote is wonderfully characteristic of the style and voice at work in this book. Simple, brilliant, profane, funny, wonderful. I don't know enough about poetry to give it a proper review but here's what I do know:
- This book (and it is a book--not merely a "collection", but a group of connected, self-refferential poems) is about alchemy, love, abjection, genitalia, oral sex, anal sex, metamorphoses, self-loathing, starvation, perversion, childbirth, contemporary film, nature, the unnatural, and of course, what it means, if anything, to write poetry in our times.
- This is worth reading for the long poem, "Save The World," alone. I think there is a perfect articulation of what it feels like to be alive right now in that piece.
- For what it's worth, I think Reines is at her best when she keeps things simple. And the poems themselves are never actually simple--they are more complex and deeply layered than I can even sometimes discern. But I do think the most eloquent poems are the ones in the later sections of the book, where the language is perhaps simpler, and where the author is cutting to the heart of the matter. The urgency, the intensity, of poems like "Baraka" are what make Reines worth reading.
whitehousedotcom's review
4.0
Could all the women everywhere get down on our knees and scream
No fuck it let's run
We will tear statesmen apart with our bare hands
You think I'm joking?
You can come
No fuck it let's run
We will tear statesmen apart with our bare hands
You think I'm joking?
You can come
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