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A review by courtneyfalling
Crush by Richard Siken
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
When I first read this collection, I was in high school, still in the first long-term relationship of my life, a relationship that was going well and felt whole, and I loved these poems. They spoke to an urgency and endless want in myself that I didn't know how to grapple with, but that I needed to not feel alone in. I was obsessive and I could survive anyway.
Rereading them almost (if not over) five years later, in the aftermath of that relationship turning into the exact kind of soul-crushing, regret-worn, drawn-out toxicity and unrequited pining this collection describes... I love these poems. I am obsessive; I might not survive anyway. But these poems aren't even focused on survival so much as registering the right here, right now, excavating it and turning it over to at least witness it fully before the future or lack of a future comes. And maybe that's what I need while in emotional crisis instead. It feels much realer.
Rereading them almost (if not over) five years later, in the aftermath of that relationship turning into the exact kind of soul-crushing, regret-worn, drawn-out toxicity and unrequited pining this collection describes... I love these poems. I am obsessive; I might not survive anyway. But these poems aren't even focused on survival so much as registering the right here, right now, excavating it and turning it over to at least witness it fully before the future or lack of a future comes. And maybe that's what I need while in emotional crisis instead. It feels much realer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, and Self harm
Minor: Cancer