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chillcox15's review against another edition
5.0
A uniquely depressing, biting, and humorous collection of poetry that uses the structure of the 'mobius strip club of grief,' the place where women (and specifically, sex workers) can exist beyond death and danger to renegotiate power structures away from the patriarchy. A fantastic collection qua collection, not just a series of poems but a whole universe to exist in.
undermeyou's review against another edition
4.0
I went back and forth on rating this. I loved the idea, but something about it’s execution just did not hold my attention…
renmarshallbrown's review against another edition
5.0
"The Möbius Strip Club of Grief is a collection of poems that take place in a burlesque purgatory where the living pay—dearly, with both money and conscience—to watch the dead perform scandalous acts otherwise unseen"
It's as good as it sounds.
It's as good as it sounds.
jrboudreau's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
4.0
lelex's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this. My favorites were “Making Applesauce with My Dead Grandmother,” “Blue Jays,” and “Ones Who Got Away with It.”
“You have to show a scar to the bouncer to get in - any scar will do. And you have to tell a story about your mother. Something she suffered through. But once you’re in, you’re in forever.”
“I hold court all day on my own intellectual shortcomings. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“The known universe is saying Fuck, softly into the unknown universe. It’s a very long winter. I can’t remember anyone’s name or whether I finished my beer.”
“Your brother got too serious,” Mom said, smoking in the car in her wool jacket with the elastic loops for shotgun shells and the flannel insert and loose M&M’s in the pockets (I loved her in that coat). “He said I was sinning for drinking coffee.’”
“I had no taste for wine then, no feel for maps. I was always stopping and staring for too long at sculptures, which were everywhere - I didn’t even have to know where I was going, they came to me, those statues - men with their swords up in the air and severed heads in their hands, women with small perfect gray breasts - and my brother would disappear into the crowded streets as if he’d lived there for decades and was late to work.”
“(the greatest trick of humans, making the sky into matter -)
“What to do with this mind? Throw everything into the fire and scream into the internet that there’s nothing to do but stand in the dark recesses throwing a bright red doge ball against the bone facade and fall in and out of love with suffering?”
“You have to show a scar to the bouncer to get in - any scar will do. And you have to tell a story about your mother. Something she suffered through. But once you’re in, you’re in forever.”
“I hold court all day on my own intellectual shortcomings. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“The known universe is saying Fuck, softly into the unknown universe. It’s a very long winter. I can’t remember anyone’s name or whether I finished my beer.”
“Your brother got too serious,” Mom said, smoking in the car in her wool jacket with the elastic loops for shotgun shells and the flannel insert and loose M&M’s in the pockets (I loved her in that coat). “He said I was sinning for drinking coffee.’”
“I had no taste for wine then, no feel for maps. I was always stopping and staring for too long at sculptures, which were everywhere - I didn’t even have to know where I was going, they came to me, those statues - men with their swords up in the air and severed heads in their hands, women with small perfect gray breasts - and my brother would disappear into the crowded streets as if he’d lived there for decades and was late to work.”
“(the greatest trick of humans, making the sky into matter -)
“What to do with this mind? Throw everything into the fire and scream into the internet that there’s nothing to do but stand in the dark recesses throwing a bright red doge ball against the bone facade and fall in and out of love with suffering?”
marginaliant's review against another edition
1.0
You can’t just write a poem about having a spiritual awakening while watching an episode of Supernatural and think I won’t call you out on it!
In all seriousness, there’s nothing poetic in here. It’s just ugly.
In all seriousness, there’s nothing poetic in here. It’s just ugly.
cstefko's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars
Yeah, this was just a bit too weird and macabre for me. There were definitely some individual poems that I liked, but they were the less conceptual ones. I particularly loved "Self-Destruction Sequence" and its ending: "It's a kind of holy moment that unfills anger." There were aspects of Stone's style that I really enjoyed, but most of this was just too abstract for me.
Yeah, this was just a bit too weird and macabre for me. There were definitely some individual poems that I liked, but they were the less conceptual ones. I particularly loved "Self-Destruction Sequence" and its ending: "It's a kind of holy moment that unfills anger." There were aspects of Stone's style that I really enjoyed, but most of this was just too abstract for me.
margaret_adams's review against another edition
As Gabe said, “I’d recommend these poems to anyone who feels the urge to headbutt books out of empathetic anger.”
(Thanks for the rec, Gabe.)
-from Interior Designs
-from Blue Jays
(Thanks for the rec, Gabe.)
I feel like your rejection slips, collated in a folder. Outdated
science magazine
of inaccurate information—
I would love to “move on.” But I carry you around like a scar,
forgetting sometimes that it is even there
until I follow a stranger’s eye to it during a handshake.
-from Interior Designs
Watch me loving you forever, Mom, on this strip of land
we call grief—but it is only life!
Do you know the game?
The game is called Being Unhappy, Just in Case.
or Gratitude as a Weakness.
And we play sometimes when there is nothing else to do.
-from Blue Jays