A review by elizabethlk
Is This Scary?: Poems by Jacob Scheier

3.0

As a chronically ill, depressed, anxious, Canadian Jew-to-be (nearly three years into studying for conversion), I expected to deeply relate to this collection of poetry from a Canadian poet writing about mental illness, physical illness (similar ones to my own, we even have been on the same meds if these poems are anything to go by), Jewishness, and settings local to me, but I ended up not really loving it. I did relate to a lot of the poems, and some of them stood out as particularly good or enjoyable or relatable, but as a whole, I didn't really love the collection. I think the style was maybe just not to my taste. I'd still recommend it, as some of it was particularly good and I suspect that other readers might find the overall of it more to their taste than I did to my own. I probably won't actively seek out the author's work in the future, but I wouldn't say no to reading more from him either.

CW: suicide, suicidal ideation, mental illness, institutionalisation