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oliver_ojos's review
5.0
Reading this book made me feel like I was gutted like a fish and then sewn back together. Nothing was taken from me, and nothing was put inside me but I feel fundamentally changed regardless.
Really, really incredible poetry and prose on the transgender experience. For so long I found it difficult to put into words what it feels like to be transgender, (specifically a gay trans ftm, a transsexual fag if you will), but now I feel like I can point to this book to give insight to what I’ve experienced. Yes being transgender is beautiful and amazing and the best thing in the world, yas slay etc. , but it also feels like there is a beast inside of you that is begging to be named.
I feel like the book is best described by what it says on the back, “Grit is a transgender coming of age story. There are no beautiful rainbows here, no whispers, but raw cries from somewhere painful”. So many stories about, by, and for queer people are about rising above the hate and the muck, and living your best fierce rainbow life. Those stories are great, but I felt refreshed and seen to read a story not about rising above the muck, but about playing in the muck, reveling in it at times, about getting your cowboy boots dirty, and letting that feeling wash out of you.
[TL;DR, I have so many feelings about this book, these poems at times will leave you feeling skinned and raw. But it’s a good feeling, a really good feeling. Whatever you do before you die, read this book. 10/5 stars
Really, really incredible poetry and prose on the transgender experience. For so long I found it difficult to put into words what it feels like to be transgender, (specifically a gay trans ftm, a transsexual fag if you will), but now I feel like I can point to this book to give insight to what I’ve experienced. Yes being transgender is beautiful and amazing and the best thing in the world, yas slay etc. , but it also feels like there is a beast inside of you that is begging to be named.
I feel like the book is best described by what it says on the back, “Grit is a transgender coming of age story. There are no beautiful rainbows here, no whispers, but raw cries from somewhere painful”. So many stories about, by, and for queer people are about rising above the hate and the muck, and living your best fierce rainbow life. Those stories are great, but I felt refreshed and seen to read a story not about rising above the muck, but about playing in the muck, reveling in it at times, about getting your cowboy boots dirty, and letting that feeling wash out of you.
[TL;DR, I have so many feelings about this book, these poems at times will leave you feeling skinned and raw. But it’s a good feeling, a really good feeling. Whatever you do before you die, read this book. 10/5 stars
foxmulders's review
tense
fast-paced
4.0
"i feel / faggot & decadent. furious & depraved."
"knelt to you for my / knighting. waiting, a trembling dog, for you to name me / beloved or beheaded."
"knelt to you for my / knighting. waiting, a trembling dog, for you to name me / beloved or beheaded."
sylvainxweber's review against another edition
5.0
"at night, you sneak into the backyard. / you dig up your childhood dog. / he's just bones. / he's just bones."
I don't like poetry. However, there are a few exceptions, and Silas Denver Melvin is certainly one of them.
I may be a little biased in my review as I've been following Melvin's social media pages for a while and own many of the shirts he has designed himself. To be honest, I really felt the urge to wear one of my miscellaneous transsexual pullover sweaters while thumbing through this collection, simply because I could truly relate to and put myself within the perspectives of every poem Melvin penned himself throughout this work.
Melvin's writing is a perfect balance of beautiful and vivid imagery/symbolism, but still easy to digest if you are not the most well-versed reader. I think I've been so turned off to poetry due to faux poeticism or the authors coming off as pretentious, but I didn't get any of those negative feelings from this collection. It's very guttural and honest, and you really can feel all the emotion and pain behind many of these pieces, which is just as heartbreaking as it is breathtaking.
Just as it is a discovery of being transgender/sexual, it is also a eulogy to your childhood and family bonds which now seem to be altered and frayed due to familial transphobia and misunderstandings. If you are in that phase of your life where you are really starting to grow and become independent while being queer, this is a definite must-read. Being in this phase of my life myself, I really felt like I could appreciate it to its fullest and eat up every page.
The phrases and metaphors regarding dogs and dogs from your childhood really got to me as my childhood dog passed away around two to three years ago, and I now have a new puppy, so I was really emotionally impacted by those phrases and sentiments. Of course, all the references to that yearning for what your childhood was and what it could have been also affected me, especially in "Old World" and "Hey Cowboy". It even inspired me to write a few pieces of my own from the excerpts I read of this collection about a year ago.
"Old World", "Three Definitions of Crossdressing", "Seventeen", "Montage Of All The Times My Body Has Been A Virus Ending In A Black And White Silent Closeup Of My Undressing", "Homesick", "Let Dead Dogs Lie", "In Response To 'When You Have Children'", "Hey Cowboy", and "Window Half Open" are some of my personal favorites, but all of the poems within this collection are incredibly solid. Can't wait to read the rest of your collections, Melvin!
I don't like poetry. However, there are a few exceptions, and Silas Denver Melvin is certainly one of them.
I may be a little biased in my review as I've been following Melvin's social media pages for a while and own many of the shirts he has designed himself. To be honest, I really felt the urge to wear one of my miscellaneous transsexual pullover sweaters while thumbing through this collection, simply because I could truly relate to and put myself within the perspectives of every poem Melvin penned himself throughout this work.
Melvin's writing is a perfect balance of beautiful and vivid imagery/symbolism, but still easy to digest if you are not the most well-versed reader. I think I've been so turned off to poetry due to faux poeticism or the authors coming off as pretentious, but I didn't get any of those negative feelings from this collection. It's very guttural and honest, and you really can feel all the emotion and pain behind many of these pieces, which is just as heartbreaking as it is breathtaking.
Just as it is a discovery of being transgender/sexual, it is also a eulogy to your childhood and family bonds which now seem to be altered and frayed due to familial transphobia and misunderstandings. If you are in that phase of your life where you are really starting to grow and become independent while being queer, this is a definite must-read. Being in this phase of my life myself, I really felt like I could appreciate it to its fullest and eat up every page.
The phrases and metaphors regarding dogs and dogs from your childhood really got to me as my childhood dog passed away around two to three years ago, and I now have a new puppy, so I was really emotionally impacted by those phrases and sentiments. Of course, all the references to that yearning for what your childhood was and what it could have been also affected me, especially in "Old World" and "Hey Cowboy". It even inspired me to write a few pieces of my own from the excerpts I read of this collection about a year ago.
"Old World", "Three Definitions of Crossdressing", "Seventeen", "Montage Of All The Times My Body Has Been A Virus Ending In A Black And White Silent Closeup Of My Undressing", "Homesick", "Let Dead Dogs Lie", "In Response To 'When You Have Children'", "Hey Cowboy", and "Window Half Open" are some of my personal favorites, but all of the poems within this collection are incredibly solid. Can't wait to read the rest of your collections, Melvin!