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brennanlafaro 's review for:
Choking Back the Devil
by Donna Lynch
This review originally appears as part of a Horror in Poetry Series at http://brennanlafaro.wordpress.com
Choking Back the Devil is very accessible to a person like me, lightly dipping their toes in to test the waters. Some of the poems have the rhyming elements I expected, most don't. Many entries read like flash fiction which I did not expect, but allowed some aspect of familiarity to guide me along. Sacrifice and Borderlines: A Horror Story in 7 Small Parts are prime examples of this. Cutting to the chase, I really enjoyed this collection. Weighing in at 94 pages, I could have knocked it out in an afternoon, but I spent the better part of a week taking the entries in one at a time, sometimes rereading them, thinking about what Lynch was putting in front of me, and also my own personal interpretation. There was not a single piece in here that confused me and made me want to put it down and re-give up on poetry all over again. I thought that maybe I'd become smarter or more open-minded since high school english, but not necessarily so. Lynch wrote a pretty incredible Afterword (originally published by Ladies of Horror Fiction) to let me know what it was I enjoyed about this collection, and dammit, she was right. I would love to just copy and paste the whole thing here, but I'll consolidate. Lynch talks about how horror poetry is a "brief, unsettling moment of pictures and feelings" and goes on to compare it to being the most frightening part of a horror novel captured in short. Yes, this is it, and that's exactly what is accomplished here. To paraphrase Donna Lynch just once more (I promise), traumatic experiences and unsettling thoughts condensed to the length of a shopping list. I think I'm going to like this going forward. Choking Back the Devil consists of 35 works, and although I don't have the room to share every one that made me think, gave me chills, or just made me appreciate the author's way with words, I will leave you with a few favorites. All The Things They Never Tell You was my personal favorite. I kept finding myself going back to reread it and it made me squirm a bit. Race is an excellent examination of horror rules and how they pertain to why people write it. If You Love Me is another great example of the author creating short, unsettling thoughts and moments. Rounding out, I also found myself thinking a lot about The Most Haunted Girl I Ever Knew, Choking Back the Devil, and It Just Wasn't Your Night. Thank you goes out to Raw Dog Screaming Press and Erin Al-Mehairi for getting this in my hands. This book was an excellent gateway drug and I can't wait to see what's next. I was given a copy by the publisher for review consideration.
Choking Back the Devil is very accessible to a person like me, lightly dipping their toes in to test the waters. Some of the poems have the rhyming elements I expected, most don't. Many entries read like flash fiction which I did not expect, but allowed some aspect of familiarity to guide me along. Sacrifice and Borderlines: A Horror Story in 7 Small Parts are prime examples of this. Cutting to the chase, I really enjoyed this collection. Weighing in at 94 pages, I could have knocked it out in an afternoon, but I spent the better part of a week taking the entries in one at a time, sometimes rereading them, thinking about what Lynch was putting in front of me, and also my own personal interpretation. There was not a single piece in here that confused me and made me want to put it down and re-give up on poetry all over again. I thought that maybe I'd become smarter or more open-minded since high school english, but not necessarily so. Lynch wrote a pretty incredible Afterword (originally published by Ladies of Horror Fiction) to let me know what it was I enjoyed about this collection, and dammit, she was right. I would love to just copy and paste the whole thing here, but I'll consolidate. Lynch talks about how horror poetry is a "brief, unsettling moment of pictures and feelings" and goes on to compare it to being the most frightening part of a horror novel captured in short. Yes, this is it, and that's exactly what is accomplished here. To paraphrase Donna Lynch just once more (I promise), traumatic experiences and unsettling thoughts condensed to the length of a shopping list. I think I'm going to like this going forward. Choking Back the Devil consists of 35 works, and although I don't have the room to share every one that made me think, gave me chills, or just made me appreciate the author's way with words, I will leave you with a few favorites. All The Things They Never Tell You was my personal favorite. I kept finding myself going back to reread it and it made me squirm a bit. Race is an excellent examination of horror rules and how they pertain to why people write it. If You Love Me is another great example of the author creating short, unsettling thoughts and moments. Rounding out, I also found myself thinking a lot about The Most Haunted Girl I Ever Knew, Choking Back the Devil, and It Just Wasn't Your Night. Thank you goes out to Raw Dog Screaming Press and Erin Al-Mehairi for getting this in my hands. This book was an excellent gateway drug and I can't wait to see what's next. I was given a copy by the publisher for review consideration.