Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
*Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*
Dead Dad Jokes by Ollie Schminkey is a Button Poetry published collection dealing with the death of her father from a terminal illness. Though the main themes of this book are queerness and grief, the trauma and writing are spun on its head because the bond between Ollie and their father was never particularly strong or even healthy and accepting. Consequently, the poetry collection examines and explores how death and pain altered the author’s relationship with their father.
This powerful, strong and unnerving collection has really stuck with me even weeks after finishing it. As many of you may know, I’m not the biggest fan of poetry because I never feel moved by or taken with them – there’s no connection or power between the words and me. While I may be able to acknowledge the brilliant writing, the effects are rarely as prominent as when I read a full-length novel. However, Ollie Schminkey has proved me wrong. The continuous themes of family, loss, grief, trauma and queerness allowed me to become deeply attached to the ongoing ‘plot’, so to speak, and I was so absorbed in the content and the style of writing.
The elegies throughout are written in free verse, with no capital letters, making the poems feel very personal, as if the thoughts had just come to the author, not rehearsed or edited. I rather enjoyed this style because again, it reinforced the attachment I had to the story because of this personal effect the style had.
Additionally, there was this constant comparison throughout of human death and animal death, with a lot of hunting analogy, referenced in the book cover. I found it brilliant how Schminkey managed to capture the experiences they had with their dad by using animals, hunting and the gore that is often present and link it to their experiences of loss and how to deal with it.
Following on from this, as the author is non-binary and transgender, the experience of “killing” their past, with the use of terms like “dead name” is another avenue the poet explored into the theme of death. In dealing with someone who was terminally ill, the identity of the author in effect become suppressed because of the needs of the dying dad. The experiences they talk about in regards to having to care for their father, and losing pieces of themselves and not being to implement activities that the author wanted to do was extremely moving and heart-breaking to read. The raw and tangible feelings expressed in the poems is something I haven’t in any poetry collection and was beyond impressed.
My favourites include Yet Another Poem About Roadkill and I Write My Dead Name in My Father’s Obituary which I think beautifully encapsulates both loss but also identity expression and dealing with two important topics at the same time in one’s life.
Overall, I would 100% recommend this to everyone. The writing isn’t complex but the topic are sometimes hard to grapple with, alongside its graphic content. Take caution reading the book but it is a really beautiful and raw collection.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent
I received a free copy of this book in return for a truthful review! Thank you so much to the publisher and the author!
I will be honest I would not normally have picked up a book like this, as I find some poetry intimidating. I am so glad that I read this. It is raw, honest, brutal!
This had me not able to put it down, as I was feeling the emotions as they were written! It was amazingly written, which helped and I would definitely read more by this author!
I will be honest I would not normally have picked up a book like this, as I find some poetry intimidating. I am so glad that I read this. It is raw, honest, brutal!
This had me not able to put it down, as I was feeling the emotions as they were written! It was amazingly written, which helped and I would definitely read more by this author!
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book took me ten miles on my stationary bike and made for wonderful resistance training. I was only planning to do five but this felt so incredibly healing after a year of so much grief.
First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an eARC of Dead Dad Jokes by Ollie Schminkey.
Dead Dad Jokes is a collection of poetry dealing with family, loss and trauma.
I thouroughly enjoyed this collection of work more so than I would have if I hadn’t connected so deeply to some of the themes I believe.
I appreciate the way in which it is written and I look forward to reading any of Ollie’s future work!
Dead Dad Jokes is a collection of poetry dealing with family, loss and trauma.
I thouroughly enjoyed this collection of work more so than I would have if I hadn’t connected so deeply to some of the themes I believe.
I appreciate the way in which it is written and I look forward to reading any of Ollie’s future work!
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
*I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
It is always an alarming, as a reader, to feel as though the author could be writing about you. That's how Dead Dad Jokes made me feel. In the wake of a recent personal loss, this book captured so many of the confusing feelings of grief perfectly for me. Schminkey was unflinching in their descriptions of the beauty and ugliness of death; they didn't only conform to the popular narratives surrounding death. Their poetry of death showed all the messiness. They recognised their grief not just in their sadness but in their anger, their lust, their amusement.
'Raw' feels like a word that's been overused in describing poetry about grief and loss but I can think of no other word that does this work justice. I could not have enjoyed this book more and I cannot recommend it highly enough although I recognise that the frankness of this is not for everyone; read the content warnings and don't take them lightly.
It is always an alarming, as a reader, to feel as though the author could be writing about you. That's how Dead Dad Jokes made me feel. In the wake of a recent personal loss, this book captured so many of the confusing feelings of grief perfectly for me. Schminkey was unflinching in their descriptions of the beauty and ugliness of death; they didn't only conform to the popular narratives surrounding death. Their poetry of death showed all the messiness. They recognised their grief not just in their sadness but in their anger, their lust, their amusement.
'Raw' feels like a word that's been overused in describing poetry about grief and loss but I can think of no other word that does this work justice. I could not have enjoyed this book more and I cannot recommend it highly enough although I recognise that the frankness of this is not for everyone; read the content warnings and don't take them lightly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Transphobia
Minor: Rape
Wow.
I already wrote a review for this but after rereading it I decided that it was woefully inadequate for how good I think this book of poetry is.
Dead Dad Jokes tackles a topic that we all will have to deal with at some point, but that most of us prefer not to think about; the death of a parent or loved one. It is an ugly business, taking care of someone during their final weeks, days, hours. There is a dirty indignity to death and dying that Ollie Schminkey does not shy away from in this collection. They speak about the death of their father in brutal, gruesome language that doesn't flinch as it talks about bodily fluids and wound care and the complex emotional state of a caregiver.
Ollie Schminkey's openness is jarring; discussion of their complicated with relationship with their father and his alcoholism, painful memories and dark thoughts in the midst of caring for him in his final days, about unresolved issues and queerness in a space where queerness is unwelcome. It is all so raw and painful and honest. Ollie doesn't try to preserve their dad's dignity in these poems. They speak candidly about catheters and cleaning up their father's pee. But they also don't try to preserve their own dignity. They tear open their heart for the reader and say "I'm an undignified mess and I don't know what to do about it at this point." They acknowledge that the death of their father has left them in this strange limbo where all the unsaid things and all of the said things and all of the things they had to do and all of the things they didn't do echo through their head and color their memories.
This poetry was so hard to read, and it is not the type of thing I would recommend lightly. There is a lot of discussion of medical care that includes graphic descriptions of wounds and things Ollie had to do for their father. There is mention of transphobia, misgendering, and unaccepting parents. There is mention of substance abuse and animal abuse (not explicit) and the trauma that comes from it all. There is a lot to unpack in this collection, but it is wonderfully written and deserves all the attention that it can get.
This has not yet technically been released yet. I got it on NetGalley, but even despite the free copy that I received I have already added the print copy to my Amazon Wishlist and will be purchasing it as soon as it is available May 25, 2021. I encourage anyone with an interest in poetry who would not find themselves triggered by the topics mentioned above to give this a try.
I already wrote a review for this but after rereading it I decided that it was woefully inadequate for how good I think this book of poetry is.
Dead Dad Jokes tackles a topic that we all will have to deal with at some point, but that most of us prefer not to think about; the death of a parent or loved one. It is an ugly business, taking care of someone during their final weeks, days, hours. There is a dirty indignity to death and dying that Ollie Schminkey does not shy away from in this collection. They speak about the death of their father in brutal, gruesome language that doesn't flinch as it talks about bodily fluids and wound care and the complex emotional state of a caregiver.
Ollie Schminkey's openness is jarring; discussion of their complicated with relationship with their father and his alcoholism, painful memories and dark thoughts in the midst of caring for him in his final days, about unresolved issues and queerness in a space where queerness is unwelcome. It is all so raw and painful and honest. Ollie doesn't try to preserve their dad's dignity in these poems. They speak candidly about catheters and cleaning up their father's pee. But they also don't try to preserve their own dignity. They tear open their heart for the reader and say "I'm an undignified mess and I don't know what to do about it at this point." They acknowledge that the death of their father has left them in this strange limbo where all the unsaid things and all of the said things and all of the things they had to do and all of the things they didn't do echo through their head and color their memories.
This poetry was so hard to read, and it is not the type of thing I would recommend lightly. There is a lot of discussion of medical care that includes graphic descriptions of wounds and things Ollie had to do for their father. There is mention of transphobia, misgendering, and unaccepting parents. There is mention of substance abuse and animal abuse (not explicit) and the trauma that comes from it all. There is a lot to unpack in this collection, but it is wonderfully written and deserves all the attention that it can get.
This has not yet technically been released yet. I got it on NetGalley, but even despite the free copy that I received I have already added the print copy to my Amazon Wishlist and will be purchasing it as soon as it is available May 25, 2021. I encourage anyone with an interest in poetry who would not find themselves triggered by the topics mentioned above to give this a try.