absinthe's Reviews (391)

A pretty decent spooky read to finish on Halloween. It had a big more gory descriptions than I would have liked (I'm more a fan of terror than horror/gross-out), but overall I enjoyed it. 

Definitely an eye opening book that made me stop and think about my own white privilege and the atrocities happening against racialized groups. 

The first few chapters felt a bit slow (they seemed to find their ground at the end of the chaoter and end abruptly), which made me think that they could have used another round of edits for the sake of pacing. However, the end note made me realize that additional rewrites may not have been possible because of the mental health toll that the writing and research process had. The back half of the book didn't have the same issue and really propelled the reader through. 

Overall, a tough but worthwhile read. Would consider choosing it for a book club discussion in the future. 

I didn't enjoy the 'retellings' of the classic fairy tales. It felt a bit strained trying to make the content ultra-adult and I wasn't enjoying the lesser known fairytales that were quite prevalent content in this collection.

I didn't like the format of the book. The sections interspersing the graphic novel portions always felt incredibly dense. I'm also not a huge fan of most superhero content so I didn't get into the story much.

I loved this collection when it came out. The 1st edition is really good, but I feel like the 2nd edition polished a few of the standout poems, in addition to cutting a poem that didn't fit the vibe of the collection and adding others that did. This book still holds a special place in my heart as it was my entry point for reading poetry.