A review by pickett22
Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna

2.0

There was some good stuff in here. Probably at least five out of the 200-and-some-odd poems were really good. Then there were the rest, which were a combination of one-liners (that were broken up into multiple lines... multi-liners?), Shel Silverstein rip offs, poorly worded rants about important things, and literal complaints about how she had to write more poems because she had a deadline.



I get that the idea of the book is the idea of being an adult and a child at the same time, so some of the poems that deal with heavy topics while being crushed into sing-songy rhythms make a kind of twisted sense, even as they make my English-major eyes bleed. So does writing haikus and then being sure to point out that they're haikus. I was willing to give it a certain amount of leeway with that kind of shit, but it'd be cool if she could come up with a few more original images and expressions, or even something with a little more depth.

A student lent me the book because she ADORES it. She feels the poems very deeply, and that's awesome, I love to see that. I can't help but feel, however, (and I'm going to sound like an asshole in saying this) that in order to feel these poems, you have to have lived a fairly sheltered life, both poetically and just... is there an adverb for the internet? Because the shit she's talking about gets delved into in much deeper, more poignant, and more poetic ways HOURLY on Tumblr. This book is like Intro to Millennialism 100, except without the solid feminist undertones.

This book a shallow dip into the un-sounded ocean of modern Western humanity. Good try, though.