A review by strawbself
Almost Home: Poems by Madisen Kuhn

lighthearted reflective

1.5

these poems are more similar to tweets or tumblr posts than poetry, but that's unsurprising considering madisen's history with tumblr. i used to follow her on a few social media platforms back in high school and her first book eighteen years spoke to me when i was 16. that residual curiosity is what propelled me to check out her third poetry collection, to see if her writing had improved, if her ideas and execution had matured beyond her teenage self. in my opinion, they haven't. this poetry collection is supposed to be about finding yourself and loving yourself and learning contentment, but it just made me feel empty and disappointed. on a technical level, her poetry is structured very strangely with mostly short one to two word lines that descend down the page and are a pain to read because of it. the cadence is awkward and stilted. madisen's ideas contradict themselves almost in the same breath. there is a facade of an overarching message, but it's bullshit. that illusion is part of being human and in madisen's case it seems to be so rooted in capitalism and the persistent insatiability that capitalism creates in us. it makes me sad for her because she is so close to realizing that it doesn't have to be an illusion, that there is a direction for the future of the world and its inhabitants when you lean into anti-capitalism, when you peer behind the curtain and find something actually fulfilling and hopeful and solid and beautiful. 

on a personal level, i related to madisen's melancholy about religion and abusive parents and ocd. i think she could excel if she were to write prose and expand her ideas into fully fledged essays about the experiences she has had throughout life and how they have affected her in the long term.
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