Reviews

The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate by Rachel McCrum

aligeorge's review against another edition

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4.0

If you’ve ever seen Rachel perform (highly recommended, as she is fantastic) you will find yourself reading this in her voice. It’s a collection about place and home and being a woman. There’s sea and stars, and a set of Problems to Sharpen the Young which I liked a lot. Other stand outs include the title poem (The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate), Joy, and I Am Gigi Hadid’s left elbow. I’ve seen Take Me to Market, Mother Dear (a strategy of dissonance) performed a couple of times and it’s interesting to see this one on the page too.

If you like poetry you should give this a look, and if you don’t like poetry try and get to a live show by Rachel McCrum (and then give this a look).

helenmcclory's review

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5.0

A clever and warm collection - not every poem connected, but that is the way, and the ones that did seem like corkers to me. Particularly loved and dogeared: 'The five o'clock poem', the 'Problems to Sharpen the Young' series, 'Pigs and wolves' and 'Luss'.
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