meadowbat 's review for:

Dead Girls and Other Stories by Emily Geminder

5.0

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I think there are certain horrors that can only be described with experimental poetry; they defy the rules of regular grammar and logic. Geminder's searing collection isn't experimental poetry, exactly, but she writes about violence and madness and genocide from a deeply interior place in braided stories that pull in bits of history and literary criticism. One of my favorites is "Edie," a haunting story about a childhood friendship that ebbs and flows as the girls grow older; it's also partly about the Lindbergh kidnapping. "Choreograph" examines a stepsister's mental illness alongside Vaslav Nijinsky's diaries. Geminder understands that some experiences are so ephemeral and so intense that they can't be entered head on. Her stories are spiraling and curious and precise.