Reviews

Alive: New and Selected Poems by Elizabeth Willis

jiscoo's review against another edition

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challenging reflective

3.75

corvuscorax's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted

2.5

It felt as if her lyricism isn't cohesive, and at times the poems themselves sort of fell apart. A lot of pretentiousness and frustratingly little good poetry, but there were some nice parts (especially the poem about spiders, the one about witches and some of the "paragraph poems"). It's a very light read as far as that goes, but it didn't quite touch me.

earlgreybooks's review against another edition

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3.0

Second reading: 3 stars
Having read a lot of beautiful poetry now—this one has kind of lost some of its magic. There are still some beautiful poems, but there are a lot of meh ones too.

First reading: 4 stars
Picked this up on a whim in Waterstones. This is some really gorgeous poetry. I especially loved seeing how her style changed from collection to collection.

nostradamusbuddy's review against another edition

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4.0

A stunning collection.

allisonplus's review against another edition

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3.0

"A witch makes her world of air, then fire, then the planets."

"When all the witches in your town have been set on fire, their smoke will fill your mouth. It will teach you new words. It will tell you what you've done."

"I joy to dream
a more fortunate planet"

"She carries herself like a parcel over waterfalls bejeweled in salt."
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