The House is on Fire and The Kids are Eating Ice Cream

Varied range of topics are addressed in this collection with a slither of darkness in a majority of the poetry. The poems had a very modern feel with some older and classical allusions thrown in the verse for good measure. Some of them also reminded me of Bukowski's works a little.

Very honest and raw collection. Liked it a lot.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

The House is on fire and the kids are eating ice cream is a great sequel of awesome poetry! Most can relate! Glad to own and have read this.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book of poetry in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thomas R. Langton shows a playful working with language in these poems. They brim with honesty, humor, and life.

The blurb states that "this book is dark poetry unlike any other," and I beg to differ.

Call me Melancholic or Moody or one whose heart is constantly bleeding by staying on her sleeves and I'd agree with you, that this book right here is a collection of emotions. In "Bacon, Beer, Boobs & Bullets" the author starts by asking what's best in life and ending simply with "what arouses your senses the most is what keeps you getting out of bed."
Reading the letter "Dear Death" reminded me a bit of "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, the way he confides in death, more like talking to someone he's known all his life and still respects. You cannot help but sit back and let those words sink in.
There are poems here that touch on creativity, artistic expression and the pressure of showing the world what it is like "The Poet's Fortune," which I totally relate to, "Magic"-soft and simple, "Shush...Just Listen..." because there are times when I just want to listen to Mozart in silence too. "Flattery" is the one I found cute and finally the one that seemed to put me in a nostalgic mood was "The Light Costs Money." Perhaps, if I started reading this collection and it was the first poem then the blurb would ring true.

Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

This is a very honest and raw collection of poetry that may not resonate with everyone. I found it to be a very enjoyable collection to read. Highly recommend!

#TheHouseIsOnFireAndTheKidsAreEatingIceCream #NetGalley

3/5 ⭐️’s

Not one of the best collections I’ve ever read. But most certainly had power poems that I felt connections with. Poetry is a hard genre to write a review for because the writing is art and I feel you need to have an open mind to fully grasp what is being said. And for that matter I give this only a 3/5 star review because there were only a couple of poems I truly felt.

I would recommend this poetry collection. And thank you to NetGalley for giving me a digital advance readers copy.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed the poems in this book. A wide variety for different emotions, moods, feelings. The author has a wonderful way with words. I recommend this book.

I think I've said before that I like poetry but I am not an expert. I can only tell you how the poetry makes me feel, and boy did this book make me feel. Typically when I start reading poetry it takes me a while to get used to the flow and style of an author. This causes me to read each poem multiple times before I can fully grasp how I feel about the poem and move on. With Langton my emotions and thoughts were immediate. There were multiple times where I had to stop and look around because Langton had to be watching me in order to know that I would connect with his poems so instantly. I felt like as I continued to read the poems, myself and the author were connecting and becoming friends, but not in that creepy way where I actually think that.

There were times where I wondered how he knew me so well, times that I actually felt tears come to my eyes, even if they did not drop and other times where I thought 'what happened Langton?'. When I found out this was the sequel to a debut book of poems I knew I immediately needed to buy his first book and read that. This author will be going on my authors to watch list because I do not want to miss a book.