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ellerypage's review against another edition
5.0
These poems are dark and bloody, full of body and rooted in the desert.
kayleigh214's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
3.0
samwreads's review against another edition
4.0
immigration poems, death, borders, pleasure, pain, scorpions, water. Slow Lightning was one of my favorite poetry books of the last decade, and this is a strong follow-up.
tony_from_work's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really strong - and utterly brutal - collection that explores violence and desire through the lens of migration and queerness. The book is largely, but not entirely, made up of documentary poetry about the victims of international exploitation and exclusion. The best piece, I think, is "Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel," which covers about half of the book and paints a vivid, unflinching tableau of migrant pain. It reminded me of a contemporary, literary "Guernica" from the North American borderlands.
velociranga's review against another edition
4.0
What beautiful and powerful poetry!! This collection of poems, focused primarily on the border crossings into the US and the people that are sucked into it's gravity, vividly explore the emotion, pain, and danger in these lives.
I need to re-read these again to really let the individual works sink in further. It's not a large collection, so I read it in one sitting without meaning to do so. But this was mostly due to the power of the collection's cohesion, tying each distinct poem together thematically and emotionally into a book that truly feels like one journey.
Excited to read more by Eduardo C. Corral. His writing is so vivid and speaks powerfully to human experiences.
I need to re-read these again to really let the individual works sink in further. It's not a large collection, so I read it in one sitting without meaning to do so. But this was mostly due to the power of the collection's cohesion, tying each distinct poem together thematically and emotionally into a book that truly feels like one journey.
Excited to read more by Eduardo C. Corral. His writing is so vivid and speaks powerfully to human experiences.
sbelasco40's review against another edition
5.0
If there was any justice in the publishing/book world — which, let’s be real, we know there isn’t — people would talk about poetry more. These poems are so good. But that doesn’t even touch on how effective they are, how visceral and vivid and at times terrifying. I loved the way Corral uses line breaks and space on the page. Sometimes reading them is like solving a puzzle. Brilliant.