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jayisreading's review
challenging
dark
tense
3.5
I absolutely adore the relationship between queerness and monsters; there’s something utterly powerful about seeing the ways in which we find ourselves tied to monstrosity. So, considering this, it admittedly came as a disappointment that I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, there were some great poems nestled in the pages, but not nearly enough to make me gush over this collection. I can’t quite tell if it was the way a lot of these poems were formatted (and, in some cases, worded) that made it hard for me to follow along or what, but a lot of them fell short.
I do want to focus on the poems I did enjoy, though. In the series that he titles “Bestiary,” he shows tender love towards for various monsters from Western culture in vignette-like lines for each supposed atrocity. Two other poems that stood out to me were “The Hunger Artist” and “It’s Alive!” There was something so visceral about “The Hunger Artist” that I found hypnotizing. I will say that all of his poems will give you a visceral reaction due to how he uses horror throughout this collection, but something about this poem really struck me in its intimacy with queerness. “It’s Alive!” felt like the centerpiece of the collection, starting the poem with some thought-provoking words: “try & watch a horror film from the point of view of the monster.” It’s rousing and eerie, a challenge with hints of grief as Sax goes head-to-head with his queerness and the way it’s perceived. This is what you’ll find throughout this collection, and I can’t help but wonder if it would have made more sense to put this poem at the start to set the tone.
Sax does a delightful job tackling horror in every sense of the word, to the point that it will make some readers squirm. It’s a unique, maybe even refreshing, approach to queerness and monstrosity that you don’t come across very often. It’s not often that I’ll say this poetry collection isn’t for the faint of heart.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Body horror, and Homophobia
tascaraudo's review
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Take the content warnings seriously. Some of the poems were very hard for me to read.
I never read poetry so this was a new one for me. I was attracted to the premise of monstrousness and queerness being linked; I find it discussed regularly in online spaces that queer people often identify with or are attracted to the "monstrous" characters in media, and that this could be linked to all the ways society can make a queer identity monstrous. It makes sense to me. To feel understanding for the monster is to recognize that you yourself are also monstrous by nature or nurture.
I never read poetry so this was a new one for me. I was attracted to the premise of monstrousness and queerness being linked; I find it discussed regularly in online spaces that queer people often identify with or are attracted to the "monstrous" characters in media, and that this could be linked to all the ways society can make a queer identity monstrous. It makes sense to me. To feel understanding for the monster is to recognize that you yourself are also monstrous by nature or nurture.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Gore, and Body horror
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