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balletbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
Raw and spare, in some cases autobiographical (there are Notes, which I can’t decide were necessary or not). I think this is a case where the arrangement of the poems in the collection did a disservice - it felt jumbled, confusing.
bysoleilceline's review against another edition
4.0
A mix of poems on the past, migration, heritage, and then add in the spicy gay encounters, past emails, and craigslist missed-connections. Very well written with descriptive language, imagery, and use of repetition.
8amtrain's review against another edition
4.0
favorites: i’ve been to riis beach, vasilyssa considers the dark path, i ask my mother for something small, good girl, the key to all locks is a fearless heart, x
messbauer's review against another edition
2.0
I think this was probably a strong collection that just wasn't to my personal taste. Prose poems sprinkled throughout gave me lot of trouble, and the language never captures me.
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
4.0
This collection of poetry was thrilling, and has left me mostly speechless. Mukomolova's poetry is defiant, sexy, and uncompromising. She pulls from her Russian heritage and that literary tradition, modern life and relationships, and a dry sense of humor to create her poems. Lovers of modern poetry and those who want to fall in love with poetry again owe it to themselves to read 'Without Protection'.
lydhavens's review against another edition
5.0
I have never read a book like this, and in the minutes after I finished it I found myself wishing every other book was like it. But of course, that would subtract from this book's magic—it is singularly captivating, and allows the reader to have one foot in this world (a world of Coney Island, delis, mattresses tied to cars, and wonderfully wild sex), and one foot in a completely different one (a world of fences made of skulls, witch's cloaks, and swans flying into girls' mouths). Sometimes, those worlds bleed into each other. Sometimes that happens right in the middle of poems, but the switch is so effortless it almost baffles me. As a poet, the craft in this collection thrilled me to the point of ambition. As a reader, every poem felt like another room in a large (probably haunted) house—and at first I didn't want to leave each room, but oh, I'm so thankful I did.
mushr00mcore's review
Read in about the time it took me to listen to Melodrama by Lorde, Without Protection is a poetry collection that is not afraid to explore the grim and grittiness of reality, not afraid of the complex and ever evolving intersections of identity.
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