Reviews with content warning for Mass/school shootings - Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen

2 reviews

robinks's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Another great collection by Chen! Navigating love and parents is never easy, especially as an Asian American queer person. Chen also does a lovely job of integrating difficult experiences with humor and storytelling. My favorites (in order of appearance):
- Doctor’s Note
- The School of Fury
- The School of Your Book/Letter to Jennifer S. Cheng
- Elegy While Listening to a Song I Can’t Help But Start to Move to
- One Year Later: A Letter
- Summer (p61)
- The School of Logic
- Chen No Middle Name Chen
- One Year Later: Her Answer
- I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party
- ode to my beloveds & brevities
- The School of Eternities
- The School of Joy

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jayisreading's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.5

Equally heartwarming and heartbreaking, Chen Chen’s second poetry collection hits hard with his exploration of family relations (blood and chosen), as well as the queer Asian American identity. These poems very much so reflect on being alive in and part of a beautiful yet also fucked up world (especially in the United States).

A lot of love and care went into each poem, and I loved the way Chen expressed himself so freely, not only in form but in switching between languages as well. Because, sometimes, English is simply not enough to express oneself, especially when one is stuck in the in-betweens of cultures.

I was especially taken to the “a small book of questions” poems, finding Chen’s reflections—especially when he was writing about his mother—poignant. Another lovely collection from Chen, and I look forward to his next work.

Some favorites: “we’ll be gone after these brief messages,” the “a small book of questions” poems, “Elegy While Listening to a Song I Can’t Help But Start to Move to,” “One Year Later: A Letter,” “Origin Story,” and “Spring Summer Autumn Winter”

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