Firstly, I like the dedication and afterword of the book very much. Quite unusual, hence great.

I enjoyed the book, since I like verses when they are intermingled with dark undertones and rhythms associated with reality. The book is at times poetry, and also prose intertwined in poetry at other times. The author has put raw emotions forth, and the words have an evocative impact on the reader. It transcends between ordinary life situations to deep meaningful, and also address mental health themes. Looking for a ray of light amidst the abyss of dark.

First of all, I appreciate the opportunity to read this poetry collection. As a new member of NetGalley, I don’t have much experience providing feedback, however, what I may lack in NetGalley experience I can make up for in reading experience. I hope this review offers you some helpful information.

Some of my favourite poems included:

Unsheathe your sword
Across the river
Pages in a book

I liked how there was recurring language throughout the collection, and when one poem would introduce an idea, you would find it referenced in another poem. This was a nice touch and helped to create a sense that I was reading a collection that had been put together in a purposeful way. For example, references to the ‘cookie crumbles’ and ‘spirits’ as well as the idea of the moon as a woman.

There was lots of interesting reflection on what it means to be a man, and a human in general. There is very much a sense of a higher power watching over. The heavens are referenced a lot, and women are made to be mythical beings ‘Mermaids, capable of pulling you in’, ‘Hera’, ‘Helen of Troy’, and ‘The Moon’. The language was quite beautiful and mythical at times.

From the title, ‘Dreams for Sale’, I wouldn’t have expected the collection to go on a sexual tangent from the 18-30% mark. I feel that a lot of the themes in this poem and some similar ones in the collection were hard for me to connect with and I did enjoy the earlier poems a lot more. With the mentions of ‘huge tits’ and also the poem ‘Sleeping Through Math Class’ sometimes it did feel as though there was sexual content and themes without it having a purpose to further the poem.

Having said that however, it was interesting to see the author grappling with the idea of sexuality, adolescence, family expectations and almost religious judgement in a sense. It would be interesting if that was more of the focus, as sometimes it did seem to fall flat and come across a little bit shallow. ‘Branching Towards the Sun’ was one of my favourite pieces in the collection and it was really interesting to see sexuality in adolescence explored in that way.

Personally, I think the punctuation could have been used in a more purposeful way. At times I did feel that the flow was disrupted by the commas rather than enhanced by them.

A lot of my favourite poems in the collection did tend to be from the beginning as towards the 30% mark onwards, the poems began to feel a little bit repetitive. At times it felt like I was reading a lot of the same ideas and it was hard to single out one poem from another. Admittedly, this was disappointing as I was really enjoying the direction the collection was going in, however I found myself almost waiting for the themes to develop or change at some point and I felt that some ideas and images were being repeated unnecessarily and weren’t adding to my connection to the poems. Unfortunately I felt it did lose momentum and managed to lose my interest slightly towards the end.