CBR10Bingo: Dream Vacation (BINGO!) Emily X.R. Pan’s The Astonishing Colour of After begins with teenager Leigh recounting the day her mother died from suicide, leaving a crumpled note in the trash with a crossed out message: “I want you to remember.” Soon after, a mysterious red bird leaves a gift for Leigh: a package filled with mementos of her mother. Leigh convinces her father to take her to Taiwan for the first time to meet her mother’s estranged family, secretly hoping she’ll also be able […]
“The worst thing about being naked and then being hit by a car is that road rash is a problem for skin.”
I might be a little burned out with poetry or just have heard and read so much of Neil Hilborn, that I am not jumping up and down over The Future by him as I have with his other book or with other Button Poetry Poets. Yet, The Future is still amazing. He knows what he is talking about with depression, life and death. He has lived, and is living, his subject matter. He “gets it” and wants to share that with you. He is […]
Depression & Other Magic Tricks
You know that a book is good when you highlight/mark something in the acknowledgements of the author. Depression & Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim is a collection of poems dealing with depression: thoughts, what she wishes others knew, conversations she had, the struggle and finally, the hope they have that they will be well someday. While the poem “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” has become the poem associated with Benaim it was her poem “On Releasing Light” that I got the “feelz” from. […]
She was the first beautiful thing I ever got stuck on.
Is it me, or is obsessive compulsive disorder having a bit of a moment? It could be me. I struggled with symptoms for 15 years without saying a word to anyone, not knowing it had a name. I’d heard of OCD, but just the pop culture version – obsessive hand-washing, obsessive cleanliness, and I didn’t have either of those problems. I finally realized that unbreakable routines, magical thinking, intrusive thoughts, motor tics, needing to do things an unusual number of times until they feel “right” […]
My only love sprung from my only hate
Olivia “Livvy” Kane and Nicholas Chandler were teenage sweethearts, growing up as neighbours, heirs to the successful grocery chain their grandfather’s worked together to found. Then a tragic car crash changed everything. Nicholas’ mother and Olivia’s father both died, and shortly after the funerals, Nicholas’ father bought Olivia’s mother’s shares for far less than they were worth. Olivia’s twin brother was arrested for suspected arson of the flagship store, and the Kane and Chandler families, who had been so very close for three generations became […]
“I don’t believe anyone who is legitimately interesting can be popular as a teenager” Mel went on. “Or ever, maybe. Popularity rewards the uninteresting.”
3.5 stars Elise Dembowski has always been painfully uncool at school, and spends an entire summer pretty much studying up on how to become popular, spending much of her savings in the process on a new wardrobe, without any success at all. Things may in fact have gotten even worse for her. In a moment of despair, she cuts herself pretty deeply, and while bleeding, calls a school mate, who naturally freaks out and has paramedics sent to Elise’s house. After this event, Elise’s divorced […]
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