Metamorphose

Thank you, NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC!

<i> I am beautiful.
I am beautiful.
But I am alone.
Is it still beautiful, when there are no spectators? </i>

I wasn't a huge fan at first, but as I read on, there were parts I really loved. There were some parts that just felt too abstract to me, though.

There are many lines that are incredibly beautiful, but in that, lots of strange words I've never even heard before that required a lot of Googling (which got a little annoying, having to tab out every few lines, since the NetGalley app doesn't allow you to highlight & lookup words). This included a word where the only Google results were pages with unscrambled answers for Scrabble (naidr pg. 38?).

I also came across some typos:
- In "Sacrifice" pg. 34 ("Your have placed" = You have placed?)
- In "i" on pg. 39 ("ambonation" = abomination?)
- Missing spaces between periods on pg. 44. ("You are a wasp.I am just...")
- Two poems that trail off which may have been intentional but I found awkward enough to question it (pg. 34 & 44)
- In "I abhor beauty" (pg. 44) "can not" and shouldn't "tick ridden" have a hyphen in between?
Maybe some things were intentional, but they had me questioning.

Overall it's an interesting concept, but there were some segments where the underlying idea/themes on beauty became lost on me.

That said, there were parts in the last few pages that really spoke to me. ~I'm in my f--- beauty standards era~ right now and stopped wearing makeup to work recently. I am still shocked to the point of shuddering everytime I see a glimpse of my reflection, because in my head I'm always imagining myself walking around as the "prettified" version, not my actual, bare-faced self. I've never felt empowered by makeup or found any joy in putting it on, it has just always felt like something I had to do in order to not appear ugly. At almost 25 I'm just now realizing how uncomfortable I've felt in my own skin for the last 10 or so years. Parts of this little poetry book allowed me to reflect more deeply on that.

From "I abhor beauty", pg. 44--
<i> I abhor beauty. Beauty left me to decrepit waste. (...) I yowl and wail to be free from her talons. (...) You have encased me in your cocoon and now I am melting to become what you have crushed me to be. I am a monster. You have jumbled up my thoughts and tricked me to believe in your definitions of beauty. (...) It is true. I have descended into madness and joined you in this tick ridden chasm when you have sucked every scintilla and left me with gaping holes. (...) I can not tell where my thoughts have become knotted within your words. I am lost. I am alone. </i>

Hauntingly beautiful prose supported by stunning illustrations. Felt like wandering through a magical forest and I loved getting lost in this short collection. I especially enjoyed ending with The Weaver.

Will need to read more by this author!