A review by librarymouse
Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Saeed Jones' vocabulary and the lyrical quality of his formatting serve to draw the reader in closer to the events and emotions within the poems, forming an encompassing bond that drew me to finish the book in one sitting. The poems feel like one continuous narrative from an ever shifting speaker, rich with cultural references.
For now, I'm content with interpretation, but I look forward to my next read through, and all of the read-throughs after that, when I can pull apart the syntax and spacing and study it line by line to see how Jones poured so much pain and complex emotion into the deceptively simple poems in this book. Prelude to Bruise deserves all the praise I can give and more.

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