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jasperdotpdf's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
4.75
Thank you to NetGalley and Querencia Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
"When the waters rage and the
rain pours for days on end,
will we finally learn how to cry?"
For the first few poems I wasn't entirely convinced by atrophy. I struggled with the contrast of poetic language and the modern, the mundane. The inconsistency between lyricism and colloquialism. But the more I kept reading, the more this book had me hooked. Had me gripped by the spine and pulled me with it down the current of emotion, anguish and breathtaking writing that atrophy is.
The further along I got in the book, the more poems I found that had me needing to take a few breaths, a few moments to process; in a good way.
I still occasionally felt frustrated with, what to me felt like, breaks and gaps in theme and immersion. And while there was annoyance with heavy repetition of events or stylistic devices, some eventually developed into a rich symbolism that was present throughout the book.
"But aren't we already what is wild and alive,
Toes pressing mud and feeling the bite
Of winter still swallowing the mountains,
Making us rope our arms around our chests"
So many of these poems hit me hard, both in how beautifully they were written, and also how familiar they felt. Familiar in ways that made me recognise myself in the pages, that made me feel like Niziolek took a peek into the box stowed away somewhere in my mind, in which I keep my collection of things that fuck me up emotionally.
"I strip my skin a thousand times, string it up like a canvas and place it in the museum for greedy fingers to touch."
I cherish the imprints reading atrophy has left on me and I will 100% return to it again in the future.
4.5⭐
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Animal death
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