Reviews

House of Fact, House of Ruin: Poems by Tom Sleigh

hollyevaallen's review against another edition

2.0

These poems, while clearly of a high caliber, were a tad underwhelming for me, personally. Many of the poems are all about war, though you wouldn’t guess it by the books cover. Overall, I feel the war poems were much better than those not about war as the imagery they provide is more striking. The poem “Lady Justice” seemed weak overall, using predictable words and having an overall lack of ambience. However, the poem “Enhances Interrogation Techniques #4” was very evocative, describing both “ding dongs” and torture in a way that makes one question a whole host of beliefs and practices. A big negative for me that took away a whole star from my rating was the use of the word “she male” which is not only offensive but it simply wasn’t necessary in the poem in which it was used. What’s more, this book came out in 2017 so it’s recent enough to have likely known better.