Book Review | Book Chatter

Alien vs. Predator
By Michael Robbins
(Penguin (Non-Classics), Paperback, 9780143120353, March 2012, 88pp.)

The Short of It:

Sharp, edgy and bold.

The Rest of It:

I am not a regular reader of poetry. I read poetry in college and every now and then, I’ll come across a poem that speaks to me, but once again, just to be clear… I am not a reader of poetry. I often don’t know how to read them out loud, or on paper so what I look for, is something different from what I experience on a daily basis. I want to be disturbed (yes) a little bit and forced to think. I want to be shocked, but not put off and there is a fine line between shocking and disgusting when it comes to poetry.

When I first read Alien vs. Predator, I felt assaulted and vaguely dirty. As if I had been taken advantage of and tossed to the curb. I wasn’t sure what to think! I put it aside for a little while. That’s when I noticed that my mind kept going back to it, whether I wanted it to or not. The visceral reaction that I’d first had, morphed into a vague curiosity and of course, that led me to pick it up again. Why, you ask?

I have a soft-spot for references to pop-culture and this collection is chock full of them. Kool-Aid, Amber Alerts, Care Bears, Michael J. Fox, Soylent Green (my personal fave) and the list goes on. The poems themselves are almost written in a stream of consciousness style which makes it impossible to predict which direction he’ll take. Sometimes they are dark and once in a while, they are funny. Although, I do have to admit that most of them seem a bit angry to me. Not violent, just angry, pissed-off at the world in some way but then right when they begin to get too dark, he throws in something to surprise you, like calling himself an asshole. I chuckled over that one.

This collection may not be for everyone. It’s certainly not for the reader who is looking for poems about beautiful gardens, paths not taken and white, puffy clouds of happiness but there is something here for a reader who is looking for more. More substance, more food for thought.

Check out this video of the author, reading one of my faves out of the collection, Material Girl. It’s a good representation of light and dark and gives you an idea of what you can expect from the collection itself. His reading begins right around the 1:00 minute mark.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher via Net Galley.
Read for: National Poetry Month Blog Tour over at Savvy Verse & Wit
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
By Heidi Durrow
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Paperback, 9781616200152, January 2011, 278pp.)

The Short of It:

A tragic tale of a motherless girl and her struggle to come to terms with who she is. Strong in voice, but fell short in the execution.

The Rest of It:

After her family falls off the roof of their building, Rachel is the sole survivor and since her G.I. dad is not in the picture (by choice), she is forced to leave Chicago for Oregon, to live with her paternal grandmother.

At eleven years of age, Rachel finds the transition to be a rough one. In Chicago, the fact that her mother was Danish and her father was black, didn’t seem to be an issue, but when she moves to Oregon, her blue eyes cause her fellow classmates to raise their eyebrows over this “light skinned-ed” girl (as she is called by some).

Her innocence and confusion over what happened in Chicago, and her concern over how she will fit into this new world, is heartbreaking. Except, she’s not all that innocent when it comes down to it, and there are mysterious circumstances surrounding the true events of that fateful evening which is given to the reader in tiny pieces, as told by various characters and sometimes even moving back and forth in time.

What Durrow does well, is create a voice for this young girl that tugs at your heartstrings. Rachel is fragile, like a baby bird. You can’t help but feel for her and all you want to do while reading this book, is grab the girl and give her the biggest hug possible. Life without a mother and father, knowing what she knows, and knowing that there is no way to ever bring her mother back, is almost too much for this young girl to bear.

However, I did have some issues with the story. In a book like this, where identity is front and center, you expect the main character to come full circle or to at least feel comfortable in the skin she was born in. I’m not certain that this occurred by the end of the story. I don’t feel that she had any more of an understanding of who she was at the end, than she did at the beginning of the story which left me feeling lukewarm about all of it.

All in all, what could have been a great book was really just an okay read for me. It lost steam in the middle, picked up towards the end and then left me feeling so-so about it. However, as a book club read, which this is for me, I think there is plenty to discuss. The choices that the parents made, the need to fit in, mixed-marriages and issues of self-worth are all discussion worthy topics and if given a chance to read another Durrow book, I would.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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