I love Margaret Atwood, but this collection of poems that she confesses to compiling from scraps she found in drawers, handwritten on paper, would possibly have done better just staying in the drawer. Or just Instagram poems, shared in a story. I’m by no means a poetry critic, but I expect to feel moved and enthralled by imagery and emotion when I read a poem, and these all felt super basic. I’m not advocating for super verbose, purple lyricism, but I just felt like little effort had been made! 

I did like a cycle of songs she wrote for women murdered by men, and some of the environmental themed ones, but overall this collection was not a winner for me. I’ll stick to her novels & shorts!