A review by foggy_rosamund
small white monkeys by Sophie Collins

3.0

After being injured, Sophie Collins found herself experiencing the emotions related to sexual assault she endured some years prior to this injury. This is a collection of essays exploring the process of coping with those emotions, from the intense physical responses, to meditations on shame and anger. There are some excellent aspects to this book -- Collins draws from a wide range of sources, and her writing is clear, honest and intelligent -- but I did not feel that the book made sense as a coherent whole, and some of the mixed-media aspects (such as found poems, use of photography, aphorisms from self-help books) didn't seem to meld well with the more academic parts. This could have been shortened and made into a long single essay, and that might have made it more focused.