Reviews

Fuck Utah by Johnny Scarlotti

goblinghost_39's review

3.0

I'm fairly certain that Johnny here has psychopathic tendencies. lol. Much of these poems deal with ridiculous amounts of violence, either against girls who hurt him or complete strangers, all with an overall tone of indifference. The rest of the poems convey a sense of being lost in life while doing every self destructive thing he could think of: drugs, violence, sex...drugs....more drugs. Lot of blood, lot of drugs. lol
The writing is definitely a free flow train of thought. Easy to read. You don't have to spend too much time (or any) dissecting each poem. This is all pretty ironic because one of his poems talks about how it takes him weeks just to get one draft done, but his style makes it look like he pumped it out in 10 minutes. It's very raw, very unpolished. I can appreciate that, especially since you don't really expect poetry to be written that way. But for me it was too unpolished. Combined with an overall tone of indifference, it was hard for me to get all that into.
That doesn't make this collection of poems bad or that I didn't like it. I feel like it's probably an acquired taste or something like that. Funny enough, I stumbled upon the author's tumblr page and bought this book because he was advertising that it was on sale. I commented on that post that I bought it and he sent me a message thanking me and that I'll have to let him know what I think. I have another one of his poem collections that I definitely will be reading here soon. Regardless of what I think of the writing itself, this guy's definitely got some stories to tell and I fully believe in supporting indie authors. So keep it up, Johnny.

kingjason's review

4.0

FIRST READING: 18/06/16.
This poetry is all about destruction, self-destruction, tortured women, many many tortured women and the apocalypse. If you were a fan of American Psycho then you'll enjoy this new vision of that book in poem form.

I always assume that poets always write from their personal experiences, so why the hell have the police not caught up with Johnny yet? I soon found out in one of the poems that he has been feeding them, talk about hiding in plain sight. :-)

There is a lot to be shocked at in this book, some of it feels like graphic novel content (shoulder blades being ripped out and used as a weapon), so if you are squeamish then I'd avoid this book at all costs, in fact run away now.

This is my favourite line in the book....

"It looks like bloody murder is dancing around
the sharp edges of her smile
Waving at me like you can run now
But you won't last a mile"

SECOND READING: 23/02/18.
So I'm reading this book a second time because Johnny Scarlotti has changed things around, a lot of original poems have been removed because he didn't like them and new ones have been added.

The book is still really good but I do feel these changes has made it lose it's edginess a bit, the raw emotion has become diluted to make things tidier and flow better. The violence, sex, humour and cheekiness is still there though. A couple of stand out poems are Cruisin' (had me Laughing big time). And this one which is about rejection letters, possibly Johnny's best poem.

CUTTING EDGE

Another rejection letter
Fuck!
I cut it up into hundreds of pieces
Making sure
to rip every character in half at least once

Those assholes in suits!
I vow to myself that this will be the last one
I’ve had enough!
They’re saying “it’s too over our heads”
“We don’t understand”
Fine, I’ll aim for the neck then
I’ll make sure y’all get it

I get in my car and drive 13 hours straight

I pull up to the building full of publishers
The ones that said my writing is
“dull” and “flimsy” and “soft”
They said I wasn’t
“cutting edge” enough for them
Fine. I’ll give you guys cutting edge

I get out of my car and walk towards the building
Steel on my hip,
Sword hilt glinting in the sun

Still a bloody good book I highly recommend.