This array of essays spoke to me in a way that I was not expecting, and left me uncomfortable a number of times. I've written about this before—that recognition of myself in someone else's words. It felt a little like a mirror and I didn't appreciate it, until I realized what was happening and that Hodson was not only speaking truths about herself, but about me, too.

In "I'm Only a Thousand Miles Away," her obsessive nature is my obsessive nature. Her societal correlation by essay's end made me think long and hard, and turn to other essays that also spoke to the role women play and are assigned when it comes to pop music. Or, in the case of Jessica Hopper, emo music. It was great to revisit Hopper's seminal essay "Emo: Where the Girls Aren't," written in 2003 for Punk Planet (but also included in her 2015 collection), after finishing Hodson's essay. Both are full of questions and observations I've had as a, well, fan. I vividly recall that term being used by others as a pejorative more than once, to describe me, to my face.

There are passages and topics and images she renders with words that I won't soon forget. There's a meditative quality to her writing that felt a bit like hypnosis, too. I suppose the word I'm looking for is mesmerizing. I gave up on trying to be comfortable, and instead became open to how Hodson was making me feel. It was wonderful to discuss this with the #bookpartyclub and get to divulge a lot of the personal that eked out of me with each piece.

I can't wrap up without also mentioning the art of Hodson's work, which is always a fascination of mine when it intersects with writing.