Reviews

Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson

elizakaspar1988's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 stars rounded up

This is the best collection of poetry I've read and I definitely related to a lot of it, more so than I ever have before. I probably would've rated it 5 stars if I was in love and happy and able to relate to some of those poems honestly. This author of this collection does spoken poetry and I'm a big fan of that so that may have been another reason that I liked it. I definitely will read more of Andrea Gibson's work. Recommended for anyone but highly highly highly recommended if you are LGBTQ+ and/or have some religious trauma you're working through ("Your Life" especially hit hard).

And now a couple pieces I especially liked. "Photoshopping my sister's mugshot" talks about how addiction changes your loved ones into people you don't even recognize. "Orlando" talks about the shooting at the Pulse club in Orlando and how that took away safety in LGBTQ+ places.

And a couple quotes for the road:

"Of all the violence I have known in my life I have never known violence like the violence I have spoken to myself"

"Do you remember the first record where we didn't have to change the pronouns to sing along? We'd gone so many years without music that knew us"

classielassie's review against another edition

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5.0

Rollercoaster is an overused cliché for so many books, but accurately describes what this collection of poems dragged my emotions through. From sobbing over "Photoshopping My Sister's Mugshot" and "Diagnosis", to the different types of tears "Good Light" brought out, to the shocked laughter the last line of "Ode to a Public Panic Attack" sparked, it was an intense, contemplative, reflective rollercoaster.
Thanks, Don, for introducing me to this amazing human and their work.

nkbecks's review against another edition

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5.0

Absolute perfection

knapier5's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

baadumching's review against another edition

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emotional funny fast-paced

5.0

sadiealexandra's review against another edition

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5.0

Another stunning collection of beauty and pain expertly interwoven. They write in a way that feels like a tangent, yet not. Like nothing makes sense, but it does. They tear everything apart and pull it all back together again just before you begin to lose it.

angd's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

3.25

acesy_vale's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

I love Andrea Gibson’s poetry. They are absolutely more of a spoken word artist than written but every once in a while there’s a line or phrase or even full poems that just punch you in the gut. I’ve cried with some of the poems and I’ve felt seen, which is all that I want from the poems I read.

elkboy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

3.5

n_ony's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

5.0