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A review by midnightstory
Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism by Christopher Soto, Kwame Dawes, James Allen Hall, Rachel Zucker, Kaveh Akbar, Ellen Hagan, Amanda Johnston, Danielle Chapman, Jericho Brown, Jill McDonough, Trish Salah, Sandra Beasley, Safia Elhillo, Ada Limón, Rachel McKibbens, Joyce Peseroff, Ruth Irupé Sanabria, Karyna McGlynn, Dorothea Lasky, Kim Addonizio, Lauren Clark, Laura Theobald, Tyehimba Jess, Naomi Shihab Nye, Cynthia Dewi Oka, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Ryka Aoki, Wendy Xu, Hope Wabuke, Jacqueline Jones Lamon, Anne Waldman, Elizabeth Acevedo, Monika Zobel, Jade Lascelles, Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Patricia Smith, Judith Baumel, Achy Obejas, Lauren K. Alleyne, Kimberly Johnson, Mary Ruefle, Jenny Johnson, Maureen McLane, Anastacia-Renee, Mahogany L. Browne, Stacey Waite, francine j. harris, Laura Fairgrieve, Denice Frohman
1.0
[ I’d like to thank NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. ]
Honestly? As soon as I laid eyes upon that beautiful cover, I knew I had to read it. The artwork along with the title just drew me in so immensely. However, I was let down — as you can no doubt tell from my one star rating.
The problem I had with this anthology, is that it doesn’t seem to flow seamlessly. It feels... cluttered and clunky and choppy and awkward and messy and I didn’t enjoy that. Though I could have gotten past that if I found that the poetry itself was good. Which it wasn’t, at least in my opinion. It felt so very tumblr-esque. Hitting enter after every three words or using a thesaurus to describe mundane things isn’t poetry. This felt so needy, in a way. I wanted to love this so much, I was ready to sing its praises but I just can’t.
Nothing seemed to make sense. One moment they’re talking about sex and the next tomatoes? I was left so confused after 96% of the poems. Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m the problem. Perhaps poetry just isn’t my thing, which is fine but I’m here to give my honest opinion and that is: I didn’t like this. It was too disorganised and nothing made sense and I wanted to DNF it at like the third poem but I pushed through and I honestly wish that I hadn’t.
Honestly? As soon as I laid eyes upon that beautiful cover, I knew I had to read it. The artwork along with the title just drew me in so immensely. However, I was let down — as you can no doubt tell from my one star rating.
The problem I had with this anthology, is that it doesn’t seem to flow seamlessly. It feels... cluttered and clunky and choppy and awkward and messy and I didn’t enjoy that. Though I could have gotten past that if I found that the poetry itself was good. Which it wasn’t, at least in my opinion. It felt so very tumblr-esque. Hitting enter after every three words or using a thesaurus to describe mundane things isn’t poetry. This felt so needy, in a way. I wanted to love this so much, I was ready to sing its praises but I just can’t.
Nothing seemed to make sense. One moment they’re talking about sex and the next tomatoes? I was left so confused after 96% of the poems. Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m the problem. Perhaps poetry just isn’t my thing, which is fine but I’m here to give my honest opinion and that is: I didn’t like this. It was too disorganised and nothing made sense and I wanted to DNF it at like the third poem but I pushed through and I honestly wish that I hadn’t.