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bookishbrenbren 's review for:
Obit
by Victoria Chang
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A poetry collection on the grief of losing both parents and her father's brain function loss after a stroke; each poem is written in the form of a short obituary.
It's weird to say I loved a collection of poems as dark, mournful, and grief-stricken as this one, but, I love it. When I sat down at the bookstore and picked this up from the coffee table, within a few pages, I had to have it. It was a strong feeling and an accurate one because the rest o the book was equally as good, impactful, beautifully strung together, as those first few pages. I did cut down 1/2 star rating because the interlude and it's poems felt... jarring and out of place? and they confused me. I am not a traditional poetry reader, so perhaps this is my own issue. Also, towards the end I felt the poems ran together, became repetitive in theme and sentiment and didn't have the same level of insight to share as the first 75% of the book. That being said, I could revisit any of these poems again at any time and feel them moving through me. This is a special collection.
It's weird to say I loved a collection of poems as dark, mournful, and grief-stricken as this one, but, I love it. When I sat down at the bookstore and picked this up from the coffee table, within a few pages, I had to have it. It was a strong feeling and an accurate one because the rest o the book was equally as good, impactful, beautifully strung together, as those first few pages. I did cut down 1/2 star rating because the interlude and it's poems felt... jarring and out of place? and they confused me. I am not a traditional poetry reader, so perhaps this is my own issue. Also, towards the end I felt the poems ran together, became repetitive in theme and sentiment and didn't have the same level of insight to share as the first 75% of the book. That being said, I could revisit any of these poems again at any time and feel them moving through me. This is a special collection.