Reviews

Death by Sex Machine, by Franny Choi

Only show reviews with written explanations

cat_224tnr's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

3.0

readundancies's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I read this collection after reading Soft Science by this poet, so a lot of the content is already familiar to me, just perhaps in a different format under a different title.

You can tell that this was written before that collection because the changes made in the newer versions are just that much more fluid in their presentation to the reader.

Of the poems that were new to me, So There, Each New Ache Makes the Old Ones Hum Along was a new favourite for me, especially the power instilled in the second half:

When I say, tie me to the bed,

I mean, rub salt in my joints so I don’t lose my shape,
constellation of ache I use to map where my body ends.

I mean bury your fingers in each wound, show me
how deep it goes. Point me out in the crowd of faces

clouding the headboard. O hunchback, make me
your clocktower, make a mallet of your mouth,

o small, broken god, make me ring. Remind me
what terrible music my iron jaw can still make.

As well as Advertisement for ThirdLife^TM: The World’s Most Advanced Avatar System because it’s so pointedly perfect in it’s execution.

So basically, Franny Choi does it again, and shoutout to Gel Jamlang for that awesome cover.

ifpoetshadmerch's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Interesting analogy, at certain points clearer than others. While I applaud being able to write in a way that feels syntactically and semantically like a cyborg, it felt a little overdone and didn't add too much to my reading experience.

mezzythedragon's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Once again, I have no headspace for poetry, but I like Choi’s inventiveness. The ones that resonate with me are “Letter to Chi,” “Letter to Kyoko,” “So There, Each New Ache Makes the Old Ones Hum Along,” and “@Fannychoir.”

v1rgo's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!
VERY VERY likely my favorite of this year!! what a fucking masterpiece. it took me a while to like actually mark it read here because i kept reading it over and over again.. i didn't wanna let it go 😭😭 i badly need a copy for myself. umm i like every poem here LOL.. i have a list in my notes app of poems i liked because i was writing them down during my first reread but i stopped a few pages in because i was writing down nearly every one!! shokushu goukan for the cyborg soul is the one that made me go :o the most the first time? but that's not a good marker of which one i LIKED the most.. what an incredible group of poems man. cannot recommend this book enough. franny choi you are a genius. also ERM again idk how to rate poetry but... Will let my brain control me just this once because WOW.