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marleyrollins's reviews
518 reviews
My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood
4.0
I really loved this, which surprised me because I’m not usually a short story kind of person, but this was wonderful. A short and sweet little snippet all about the magical mystery our parents hold for us when we’re younger and how our attitudes to them change as we age.
I remember feeling the exact same way as the narrator of this story when I was younger- that my mam was weird, she liked strange things, and frustratingly thinking god, why can’t she just be a normal mam? I feel like this is something all kids go through, and I thought that Atwood just captured it perfectly here, with her own spooky, Practical Magical-esque eccentric twist on the theme.
Watching how the narrator then begins to appreciate how special her mother was, how she protected her from so much and she injected magic into her life is really beautiful, and again this felt like a really universal experience that was shown in such a lovely way. As we age, we all begin to see our parents as humans rather than just parents, and we truly appreciate them so much more for who they are, so I loved this.
I also loved the way the story is cyclical- the narrator mirrors a lot of the traditions and old wives tales her mother shared, and she goes on to share these with her daughter too, who then thinks she’s a weirdo.
I absolutely loved this, and my only complaint is that it wasn’t longer. I could see this story being very easily extended into a full novel.
I remember feeling the exact same way as the narrator of this story when I was younger- that my mam was weird, she liked strange things, and frustratingly thinking god, why can’t she just be a normal mam? I feel like this is something all kids go through, and I thought that Atwood just captured it perfectly here, with her own spooky, Practical Magical-esque eccentric twist on the theme.
Watching how the narrator then begins to appreciate how special her mother was, how she protected her from so much and she injected magic into her life is really beautiful, and again this felt like a really universal experience that was shown in such a lovely way. As we age, we all begin to see our parents as humans rather than just parents, and we truly appreciate them so much more for who they are, so I loved this.
I also loved the way the story is cyclical- the narrator mirrors a lot of the traditions and old wives tales her mother shared, and she goes on to share these with her daughter too, who then thinks she’s a weirdo.
I absolutely loved this, and my only complaint is that it wasn’t longer. I could see this story being very easily extended into a full novel.
I Am Not Your Final Girl by Claire C. Holland
3.0
First off, I feel like I should preface this review by saying that I’ve never been the biggest fan of poetry. I’m not really sure why, but I feel like I’ve never really ‘got’ it, so that will likely colour my review.
But…for me this was only okay. I thought the concept was interesting and something I’d never seen before, however I feel like the actual execution was a little bit patchy. There were some lovely lines, and some lines that felt a bit clunky and like I’d definitely read variations of them many times before. Sometimes it felt a tiny bit like the poet had just discovered feminism and so was trying a liiiitle bit hard.
Some of the poems were great though, for example, I really enjoyed Carrie, Clarice, and Selena. I will say, I feel like I definitely liked the poems better when I’d actually seen the film, as the themes were a little bit confusing on some of the ones where I hadn’t, and some of the films mentioned were quite niche. However, as a horror fan, it’s given me more titles to add to my list to check out, which I’m a huge fan of!
Final thing I observed was that some of the poems would start really strong or have one really great verse, and then it felt like they struggled to build around that verse and so the quality tailed off a bit, meaning not all the poems felt as cohesive as they could have. For example, Clarice was one of my favourites, but the second verse pales in comparison to the first. I also found some of the layouts and line breaks a teeny bit pretentious, and like they weren’t quite adding meaning or value to the text, but tbh that’s such a big trend with Instagram poetry, so she can’t be blamed for this becoming a thing.
Overall, this wasn’t bad at all, and I’d like to do a reread in the future to see if I pick up more from the language and imagery, but for now I’m saying that it was okay, but I’ve read better.
But…for me this was only okay. I thought the concept was interesting and something I’d never seen before, however I feel like the actual execution was a little bit patchy. There were some lovely lines, and some lines that felt a bit clunky and like I’d definitely read variations of them many times before. Sometimes it felt a tiny bit like the poet had just discovered feminism and so was trying a liiiitle bit hard.
Some of the poems were great though, for example, I really enjoyed Carrie, Clarice, and Selena. I will say, I feel like I definitely liked the poems better when I’d actually seen the film, as the themes were a little bit confusing on some of the ones where I hadn’t, and some of the films mentioned were quite niche. However, as a horror fan, it’s given me more titles to add to my list to check out, which I’m a huge fan of!
Final thing I observed was that some of the poems would start really strong or have one really great verse, and then it felt like they struggled to build around that verse and so the quality tailed off a bit, meaning not all the poems felt as cohesive as they could have. For example, Clarice was one of my favourites, but the second verse pales in comparison to the first. I also found some of the layouts and line breaks a teeny bit pretentious, and like they weren’t quite adding meaning or value to the text, but tbh that’s such a big trend with Instagram poetry, so she can’t be blamed for this becoming a thing.
Overall, this wasn’t bad at all, and I’d like to do a reread in the future to see if I pick up more from the language and imagery, but for now I’m saying that it was okay, but I’ve read better.