Reviews and Comments

In the 2nd book, I don’t know how the author intends us to take the Duke and Duchess; but they’re rich and powerful and they play games with the lives, feelings, and honor of those who aren’t, and I hope they meet a grisly end (but I know they won’t).

This is a great anthology. I’ve photographed a couple of pages to read often when I need hope or motivation.

Some of the saddest parts of this book are the hopeful ones, the passages that say, “It’s not all bad news, we’re making progress, look what we did here!” and it’s something that’s been undone by T***p and his toadies.

The book was published in 2024. How quickly things change.

I’ve been reading and writing poetry for about half a century. Even though this book is written for newcomers to poetry, I found value in it, especially in the analyses of specific poems. There’s plenty about social issues, but not in a polemical way. It’s not a “poetry for the revolution” book.

I’ll be coming back to this book, probably more than once. CAConrad gives us the rituals/exercises that lead to the poems, as well as the poems themselves. The poems I write will not be the same after reading Ecodeviance.

I first met Tomie through the movie, which is a disturbing piece of work, but the graphic novel is FUCKED. UP. The immortal title character, who manipulates people into murdering her again and again, is a malignant narcissist and an incel’s wet nightmare, but there’s something pure about her malice. If you’re a fan of Fantômas or Maldoror, Tomie might be you.

Imaginative and well-written horrors that are sometimes all too relatable.

An important, affirming, and (I hope) life-changing book for me.

There’s a certain sameness to many of the poems here. I don’t know if that reflects editorial preferences or the state of U.S. prose poetry at the time. A few pieces are delightful.

An absolutely wonderful collection of poems for lovers of monsters, myths, vivid language, and empathy.

Many excellent parts that, for me, did not add up to a satisfying whole.

I was promised a novel and I got a narrative prose poem. I was promised horror and I got a love story. I’m not complaining. It’s a tale about a mermaid, but Hans Christian Andersen, it ain’t. It’s bloody and bleak and cruel. But I already said it’s a love story, didn’t I?