TITLE: Witchcraft and Monsters
AUTHOR: Kala Godin
RELEASED: January 21, 2019
PUBLISHER: Patchwork Press
FORMAT: eARC
GENRE: Poetry (YA)
GOODREADS RATING: 4.29
TRIGGERS:
SYNOPSIS
If there’s anything Kala knows, it’s monsters.
Witchcraft and Monsters is a debut poetry collection by Kala Godin.
Kala understands that the human body can be its own kind of monster. She knows the way strangers both see her and don’t.
There is magic in everything we do.
And there are monsters in each of us.
I sometimes find myself ready to dive into something I rarely read, which is exactly what happened when I saw the cover of this poetry collection. You might or might not know about my weakness for skulls, but.. well.. I have a weakness for skulls. Doesn’t even matter if it’s a detail on clothes, wall art or.. book covers. Since this is a poetry collection, I was even more curious to see how I’d feel about it and here we are!
There isn’t really an awful lot to say about a poetry collection – especially a short one like this. With 54 pages, I reached the end before I even noticed and it’s not like I tried flying through it either. For some that might mean the poems didn’t touch them, didn’t leave a mark but that wasn’t the case for me.
I’ve never known
Any religion that isn’t
Sharp teeth and sickly sweet smiles,
Dirty nails and blood stained cotton.
Sure, as with every poetry collection there will be poems that leave more of an impression than others but overall I really liked most of them. The quotes used in this review are poems or part of poems I particularly liked. Hopefully they’ll tempt you to read the rest of this collection!
Pyro
I love aggressively.
I set myself on fire,
And let everyone watch as I burn.
When the fire has gone out,
I pick my ashes up,
and put them in my ribcage.
I ask myself,
“Why did nobody burn with me?”
The answer is always the same.
I don’t know love in small doses.
I know how to spill my entire being out.
I know how to love completely.
And they fear me,
The way they fear the ocean,
The way they fear a wildfire.
I am too much of myself for them,
But never enough,
Of what they want.
There are some other poems that really hit me as well. Poems that made me ask myself some questions I hadn’t really asked before and.. that’s what poetry is supposed to do, right? To make you question things, to make you feel, to make you admit certain truths you usually hide away from.
A poetry collection worth reading if you like poetry, if you feel like asking yourself some harsh questions and maybe even if you feel like confronting yourself with even harsher truths.
How often do you read poetry?
What are some subjects you’re always hit by when it comes to poetry?
Do you feel like poetry should be beautiful?
Or should it be ugly and filled with truth?
Ooooh, this sounds really good! I love the religion quote—that immediately landed this on my TBR haha.
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Haha, I hope you enjoy it!
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That cover is gorgeous and I also have a thing for skulls. I don’t read much poetry these days but I liked those snippets you shared!
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I miss my skulls sometimes! Every time I see something with skulls, I immediately hop on over but then go “yeah, no.. I’m.. too.. grownup..” and leave it be. :’)
I don’t read much poetry at all, but I’m so happy this one was a success!
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Pfft you are never too grownup for the things you love!
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Haha, people at work kind of think differently about that. 😛 I’m already the “odd duck” for refusing to remove my lip piercing. xD
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They are silly, you do you
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Poetry is not something that I read often, and when I have read it, it was always for school and not enjoyable. The last piece of poetry I read was The Iliad and the Odyssey.
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Never read! When it comes to poetry, I rarely pick it up either but when I do, I try making sure it’s about topics I have some kind of connection with. Makes it a way more pleasant – and sometimes confronting – experience.
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