Take a photo of a barcode or cover
caitlinturningpages 's review for:
Planting Gardens in Graves
by r.h. Sin
I received an eARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review originally published on my blog, Turning Pages.
I’ve been in the mood for poetry lately. I follow poets on Instagram, and find so many new to me writers that I love. I found R.H. Sin on Instagram and liked some of the poems he shares on there. So of course when I saw this on Netgalley, I wanted to read it. Unfortunately, I was left feeling incredibly disappointed.
What first struck me about this collection is that often the way the stanzas are broken up are jarring. It interrupted the flow of them, but not in a way that came across as meaningful to me.
I also found that the language R.H. Sin uses sometimes was offputting. The imagery he created with some crude words and phrases came across as ugly. The topics he was discussing were ugly, but to see some of the same rude words again and again in his poems was frankly disturbing.
He covers topics from love, sexism, grief, and depression. I liked only a few of the poems. Reminders For Men, To Serve and Protect, We Do Not, and Either Way are some of the ones that stood out to me. I felt the messages in those poems were conveyed well and covered important topics. There’s one where Sin tells men to stop judging women, and to stop expecting things from women because women owe men nothing. There’s also one about racist cops.
My issue, however, is that this collection is pitched as including poems which “empowers its readers to seek the love they deserve”. This makes me mad. A lot of the poems about finding the love you deserve seem to be directed at women. In fact, there are numerous poems which seem to judge and advise women about how to handle abusive or toxic relationships. I cannot tell you how angry it made me. One poem is about a girl whose mom was abused by her dad. The poem ends by saying that the girl is just like her mother. What a cold way to talk about abuse. The other poems about abuse urge the women to leave the men who abuse them. There's so much wrong with that statement because women often stay out of fear or begin to think they deserve the abuse, etc.
In another poem, he also gives advice about what daughters should be taught by their mothers. Let me repeat this: Sin tells readers that daughters need to be taught the games men will play to get what they want so they know how to guard themselves. 1) Girls are constantly told what men will say and do to get in their pants. 2) Sin, why didn’t you write a poem about sons being told to treat girls with respect? By this point, I lost my patience for the book. Sin directs many of his poems about sexism towards women like it’s our job to guard ourselves rather than men’s job to stop their problematic behaviour. It seems like Sin was trying to discuss sexism to show how woke he is. He’s placed himself as a knowledgeable man who thinks he can give women’s issues a voice to his large audience. But if this is the kind of thing he’s going to be saying to his audience, I’d prefer he didn’t write poems about that topic at all. If you want to read good poetry about sexism and feminism, go read books by the many talented female poets.
Planting Gardens In Graves is a disappointing book. It boasts that it’s empowering, but I’m here to tell you it isn’t. I was a fan of his work from Instagram, but after reading this book I’m left feeling sad. The bad aspects of this poetry collection outweigh the good ones.
Review originally published on my blog, Turning Pages.
I’ve been in the mood for poetry lately. I follow poets on Instagram, and find so many new to me writers that I love. I found R.H. Sin on Instagram and liked some of the poems he shares on there. So of course when I saw this on Netgalley, I wanted to read it. Unfortunately, I was left feeling incredibly disappointed.
What first struck me about this collection is that often the way the stanzas are broken up are jarring. It interrupted the flow of them, but not in a way that came across as meaningful to me.
I also found that the language R.H. Sin uses sometimes was offputting. The imagery he created with some crude words and phrases came across as ugly. The topics he was discussing were ugly, but to see some of the same rude words again and again in his poems was frankly disturbing.
He covers topics from love, sexism, grief, and depression. I liked only a few of the poems. Reminders For Men, To Serve and Protect, We Do Not, and Either Way are some of the ones that stood out to me. I felt the messages in those poems were conveyed well and covered important topics. There’s one where Sin tells men to stop judging women, and to stop expecting things from women because women owe men nothing. There’s also one about racist cops.
My issue, however, is that this collection is pitched as including poems which “empowers its readers to seek the love they deserve”. This makes me mad. A lot of the poems about finding the love you deserve seem to be directed at women. In fact, there are numerous poems which seem to judge and advise women about how to handle abusive or toxic relationships. I cannot tell you how angry it made me. One poem is about a girl whose mom was abused by her dad. The poem ends by saying that the girl is just like her mother. What a cold way to talk about abuse. The other poems about abuse urge the women to leave the men who abuse them. There's so much wrong with that statement because women often stay out of fear or begin to think they deserve the abuse, etc.
In another poem, he also gives advice about what daughters should be taught by their mothers. Let me repeat this: Sin tells readers that daughters need to be taught the games men will play to get what they want so they know how to guard themselves. 1) Girls are constantly told what men will say and do to get in their pants. 2) Sin, why didn’t you write a poem about sons being told to treat girls with respect? By this point, I lost my patience for the book. Sin directs many of his poems about sexism towards women like it’s our job to guard ourselves rather than men’s job to stop their problematic behaviour. It seems like Sin was trying to discuss sexism to show how woke he is. He’s placed himself as a knowledgeable man who thinks he can give women’s issues a voice to his large audience. But if this is the kind of thing he’s going to be saying to his audience, I’d prefer he didn’t write poems about that topic at all. If you want to read good poetry about sexism and feminism, go read books by the many talented female poets.
Planting Gardens In Graves is a disappointing book. It boasts that it’s empowering, but I’m here to tell you it isn’t. I was a fan of his work from Instagram, but after reading this book I’m left feeling sad. The bad aspects of this poetry collection outweigh the good ones.