halberdbooks's reviews
108 reviews

The early months of 2014 were very strange for me — as were the middle months and the later months — but standing out with special prominence was February through April. Tucked among the many, many, seismically important things that happened in that time was a visit from a beloved friend. She gave me this book, telling me it was one of her favorites. It then sat on my shelves (or in boxes) for the next decade. Finally, I resolved that in 2025, I would read it. It turns out I was right to fear reading it. I think I would not have handled it well if I had read it when I got it. It could have been the capstone of my college education turned into a work of surreal terror. You can understand how I, traumatized and burnt out as I was, would not have been ready for it. I am very glad I have read it now. It is exceptional. I have a billion thoughts about it that I will not get to here. I could not possibly begin to get them down tonight.

Surreal, sardonic, ironic, oneiric. Every poem a darkly funny daydream. But not ha-ha funny. You know. It's quite good.

Speaking how I feel about this book is a challenge. In it's own right, it's quite good. Spooky enough, disgusting in exactly the way it wants to be, sardonic and fun in the way it wants to be too. I wish that was where I could leave this. But the author's note confirmed what it was that made it difficult for me to be completely positive about this. I wish it had just transparently used The Fall of the House of Usher as an inspiration, rather than committing to genuinely being a retelling. Instead, the author confirms that she wrote it because she was unsatisfied at how short the original story was and how it lacked concrete answers. I find the brevity and the lack of concrete answers to be the best things about that story. Filling in the details, finding scientific explanations for what happened... it turns The Twilight Zone into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The mystery, the teetering uncertainty, that is what makes the horror work. Instead, the book must rely on body horror to get its scares—and I admit, it does this very well. I personally WANT to like this. Frustrating that I'm being held back. I wish the author had filed the serial numbers off, to use the fanfiction term for it. You can still have the author's note read the same, and I can be like "A-ha! I thought so! Cleverly done!" Because it IS cleverly done! But clever is, unfortunately, not the same as enduringly terrifying.

I've said a lot about Frank O'Hara in Halberd Books vol. 3, and I don't think I ought to repeat myself here. That said, I see now that I was wrong: at least one book remains in print that he edited himself. I am so pleased to know this, both since it means I can donate this to The Illinois Eagle without worrying if I can replace it, and because any factual inaccuracies in my books simply reinforces my point that you should never take any writer at face value, especially not a poet.

Experience has taught me to be wary of nontheology books written by theology writers, but I found this an engaging and enjoyable read. I have my objections to parts of it, but I have often said that any writing guide that never pisses me off cannot possibly be any good.

I do not have the trauma of growing up in the shadow of a world war, or the trauma of being descended from a generation decimated by ethnic violence. But I do know what it's like to feel that you belong neither in one place or amother. I do know what it's like to feel rage and injustice well up within you without being able to name the true cause. I do know what it's like to be raised by those kinder than those that raised them and yet still retain scars from the upbringing. I do know what it feels like to try so desperately to keep something in your life only to have it ripped away. I do know what it's like to feel like your past is not quite real and the agony of no one filling in the gaps for you. So by the end of this book, I was unexpectedly in tears. A very good book for middle grade readers covering some very challenging topics with grace and care.

I'm speechless. I am going to have to chew over this one for a very long time. The final part, abridged and translated from "The Place that was Promised" especialy has a tremendous amount for me to mull over. I don't feel up to talking about what this book means to me yet. But I can say it is tremendously important.

Okay, I've said some disparaging things about this series so far, but this volume was actually a lot of fun.

I have been fortunate enough to see The World's Tallest Poet (alleged) perform his work a number of times, but this is the first time I've gotten to sit down and really take in his words on the page. Having gotten to hear him live, it is satisfying to find his vocal style and physical presence come through on the page. Here are the words of a man who somehow cares so much and doesn't care at all, who takes everything seriously and nothing seriously. I liked this a great deal, but I can't say I liked every poem. Of course, if I HAD said that, he himself would be disappointed with me. Plainspoken and enigmatic, content and despairing, disturbed and unshakeable, Ian Winterbauer's poems are as much of a delightful koan as the poet himself.

I'm not here to debate whether aliens are real (maybe!) or whether they visited our distant ancestors (who can say?). What I can say is that Erich von Däniken can't write a convincing argument to save his life. He'll start by taking his conclusion for granted (I wish I had a count of how many times he says "let us assume") and then state a bunch of things that would be interesting if his assumption were true, never once connecting the ideas in a meaningful way. By the end, he's throwing out things like The Tunguska Event and Edgar Cayce and the atmosphere of Venus, and he doesn't even try to state how these things are related to his central premise, let alone each other. All of the arguments he actually DOES make boil down to one fundamental assumption: the peoples of the distant past could not have had much imagination or sophisticated learning without the help of visitors from another planet. He never explains why they could not. Bad arguments and worse premises. I will admit, this was an engaging listen, but I expect that is more due to William DuFris being an exceptional audiobook narrator.