Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson

3 reviews

riverestyx's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Andrea knocks it out of the park yet again with their most recent collection. These poems made me cry while I read them in public but also gave me hope at the same time. I always will recommend Andrea's work but this one feels especially special. There is also something very special about being a queer person from a small town in Maine reading pages full of love and hope from another queer person from a small town in Maine.
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smallish_bird's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

"There is no escaping the magic now.
Beauty caught me and never let me go." - Acceptance Speech After Setting The World Record in Goosebumps by A. Gibson 

A lovely collection of personal poetry/prose meant to inspire hope.

There is so much love, introspection, and beauty in this book; compassionate nuance is foundational to to Gibson's writing. I'm in awe of their metaphors, the creative ways they frame the complex and mundanity. Their work is concise and clearly communicated, and it's a joy to reflect upon. 
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chamomiatea's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad

5.0

 
Thank you to NetGalley and Button Poetry for providing me with a free e-ARC of You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson, in exchange for review. 

I have read and loved two of Andrea Gibson’s other poetry collections, Patsy, and Lord of the Butterflies. I find reading Gibson to be a full body experience. My eyes, whilst simultaneously gobbling up all their delicious words, are also constantly brimming with, and often spilling tears. My mouth, agape, gasping, or laughing. My emotional self, ignited over and over, as the poems wash over me in all their raw realness. My skin, constant goosebumps. Once you read the first poem of this collection, you will know why I felt Andrea must have been snooping around in my brain while writing this collection. 

In You Better Be Lightning, Gibson speak on themes of queerness (both gender and sexuality), on climate change, on the beauty of the world, on abuse (yes, I do recommend checking trigger warnings before embarking), on grief, on therapy, and much more. As dark as these topics might seem, you will find humour within these pages, sometimes wry, always sharp. Often just when you need it the most. Gibson’s poems give a tantalisingly intimate peek into their life, their loves, their pain, and their growth and change over the years. 

I will admit I am not a big poetry reader, and I think that my ability to connect to Gibson’s work speaks volumes. It is conversational and easy to approach. Gibson is a story-teller. I am never left reading lines over and over trying to figure out what they even mean, like I find I am when I try to read some styles of poetry. Don’t get me wrong, I read the lines over and over, but it’s because I love them and want to absorb them into me. 

I especially love Gibson’s use of language. Their wordplay has always delighted me, the way they use homonyms and spin them into fantastic metaphors and imagery. Their craft and skill is tremendous. 

You Better Be Lightning is Andrea Gibson at their best. Raw, relatable, emotional, fierce, beautiful, and with a delightful spark of humour. I whole-heartedly recommend this collection, and I can’t wait to get the chance to recommend this to my library patrons once released. 

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