Never knew modern poetry can be so interesting to read! True to its image, it gives the right amount of heartbreaking pain to get me going while reading it.

I am so late writing this review. This is not a bad book, and I liked some of the poems. Now, poems are so personal and I usually vibe with some and others don’t.
Now, I have to say, I have yet to this day found a poetry book that I have given 5 stars, and for me a 3 star book is still a book I would recommend.
I was so exited to read this book, and it did not disappoint me.

Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next! Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next!

I accidentally missed the time to download this amazing collection of poetry, so I borrowed it from the library and I was absolutely amazed. The past year I’ve been trying to read more out of my comfort zone and poetry has definitely has been my go to. I was so pleasantly surprised to really like these and I do truly hope everyone has the chance to read this.

I think that some poems were definitely stronger and more emotional than others but overall I really enjoyed myself.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this.

An excellent collection of powerful poems! I was already in love with the cover but the content? Chef‘s kiss. I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did because I am very picky when it comes to poetry, but here we are.

Really strong collection of poetry!

It is a great exploration of gender and it is fantastic that there are books like this out in the world for anyone struggling with their identity. I think this is a poetry collection that is accessible to people who may not read a lot of poetry (like me!).

Was not what I expected, did not finish book. Not my preferred genre, I should have read the details more clearly before choosing this book.

A beautiful collection of poetry that is open and raw and real about what life feels like as a non-binary sexual assault survivor. It is lyrical and heartbreaking and intense and raw. Hard to read, harder to put down.

This is the intersection of three of my interests: poetry, theatre, and queerness. The way the poet uses theatrical devices and references to write about queerness and identity is clever and exciting but also terribly moving. I loved this collection and will be looking out for more from this poet.

Please Come-Off Book by Kevin Kantor is a fascinating, vulnerable poetry collection that is at times incredibly hilarious. Kantor covers musings of their lived experience, touching on gender identity as a nonbinary person, queer relationships, family, theater, love, trauma, fear, belonging, and loneliness. I adored Kantor’s candidness and vulnerability; and the content of some of their poems is so funny, especially the poems about theater! I would recommend reading the physical book as the layout of some of the poems really adds to the experience.

Thank you Button Poetry and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Book TW: transphobia, homophobia, sexual assault; death; suicidality

I’m not a poetry buff, so I can’t really say a lot about the collection from a technical standpoint, but I did like quite a few of the poems. There were some that the formatting didn’t work for me, but I feel like it’s normal to only have some poems connect with you out of a collection.
What I /did/ love was the solid connection to theatre woven throughout the collection. It helped to give a lot of context to the poet’s emotions and experiences that I may otherwise have had trouble connecting with.
As far as specific poems I enjoyed, the following were definitely my favs: Stage Makeup Syllabus; Secondary Character; A Short Play; and then the whole series of “The Academy” poems.
Overall, the collection is very short and can easily be read in a sitting. It has a lot to say about gender identity, theatre, and emotions. The poet had layed their life out on the page and even if I don’t connect with every single poem, that’s something that I can appreciate.

Before I begin my review of Please Come Off-Book, I want to take a moment to talk about escapism. In my mind, there are two key methods of escapism. The first is passive; watching tv, reading, being read to- an exploration of a world and narrative you have no control over, that you're immersed in but not 'of'. And the second is active; singing, writing, and theatre. As a writer, I spend a lot of time with other creatives, actively participating in escapism, and to varying degrees. But it's always the theatre buffs and drama students (certainly in my experience) who take active escapism to an ambitious and empowering level. They're not just creating a role for escaping into, they are escaping into that role.

I learned through Kevin Kantor's Live Stream with MilRep that 'Please Come Off-Book' is a theatre term meaning, "show up to the first rehearsal [having your script] memorised"; suggesting (even in so few words) the labour which has to go into a theatre production, even before rehearsals begin. My roles in theatre have always been behind the scenes (helping with props or writing etc) and this poetry collection made me miss the theatre. It spoke of a creative home, a world worth escaping to. But it also left me with the poignant reminder of how little theatre (and those who are part of the theatre experience) is appreciated in our modern society, even by those who attend.

During the Live Stream, Kantor spoke of the 'sacrifices' Non-Cis people must make of their 'personhood, for the sake of someone else's artistic vision.' Each poem chips away at the precedence set by former artists, directors, actors etc, that there's only one way to explore theatre, sexuality, gender and self. Overall, I found this collection of poetry to be charming, poignant, powerful and empowering, though I much preferred having the poems read aloud during the Live Stream, than reading them flat on the page. But I think that's the whole point of theatre and performance, isn't it?

I think this is my new favorite poetry book. I understand that many people will not enjoy it as much since they don’t connect with the topic the author presents, but the author and I share a lot,

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the author’s struggles and journey as he came to embrace who he is. I was not familiar with Kevin Kantor before requesting this book, but I will definitely seek out future publications and slam poetry from them.

This collection is really just stunning. Kantor's colloquial voice deftly combines comedy and poignancy against the backdrop of a theater conceit. I'm so looking forward to purchasing my own personal print copy of this book, and hopefully adding it to our collection at the library!

I loved this poetry book. I thought the poems were amazing and flowed well. I especially like the formatting for some of them, the poem set up as a play script, the boat one, and the makeup class one. The poems were beautiful and portrayed what they meant extremely well. I thought that this was definitely one of the best poetry books I've read.

Really enjoyed this. I don't fit the authors main target audience that might relate to his experiences better, but still was able to feel the messages being sent through the pages.

I love Kevin Kantor perhaps more than anyone else in this world (sorry mom). Anyone who knows me well is probably well aware of this fact. I have seen all of their slam poetry that exists on youtube so I was unbelievably excited to get to read this through netgalley. Thank you book gods.

For those of you who are unaware of Kevin Kantor’s existence (first off, how is that possible?), here are some of my favourite slam poems of theirs! A Letter From Cancer highlights their recitation skills, Honest Confessions on Letting Go is hilarious and People You May Know is very powerful.

Kevin Kantor’s poetry always feels very emotional and personal. They seem to draw inspiration from their life which leads the poetry to feel very authentic. I, as a self-professed coldhearted cynic who didn’t find The Fault in Our Stars at all sad, have been drawn almost to tears by Kantor’s poetry.

I especially like how the poet uses repetition to create a rhythm in the poems even without having a rhyme scheme. Lots of the poems in this collection were poems that I’ve heard them recite before and it was nice to see how it was laid out on a page to sort of preserve the inflection and cadence of the poetry. There was some creative use of the layout that definitely served more than just an aesthetic purpose. There were also a couple of poems that seemed to really suit the written medium with the use of footnotes and the such. I found the reoccurring metaphors involving theatre really interesting even as someone with very little theatre knowledge.

My one flaw in this collection is that there were poems that felt a lot weaker than some of their other ones. All of their slam poetry has been so consistently amazing (and also a little life changing) so it was surprising reading some poems that just didn’t seem to meet the same standard. Admittedly I did have pretty large expectations for this book, so not sure how much of this feeling results from that.

One of my favourite poems from this collection (that I had not heard before) is The Man Playing My Father.

Final Thoughts: 4.5 stars! A wonderful poetry collection that I recommend!

"& it can be that simple I learn to love without sacrificing myself at the altar of someone else's desire."

I don't normally read a lot of poetry, but this collection really appealed to me for many reasons and I was not disappointed. Kantor's poetry is raw and emotional. As a queer theatre kid, I related to a lot of the issues Kantor wrote about. This collection broke my heart, but it also made me feel so seen and not alone.

Thank you, NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3931783917

This was such a fantastic collection of poems that examine family, relationships, identity, the gender binary, and many other important human experiences through the lens of the theatre world.
As someone who has spent a lot of time in performing arts spaces, I enjoyed the way this collection was structured, which each section of the book as different parts of the play (inciting incident, rising action, climax, denouement, transformation).
I also appreciated the variety in formatting for the different poems throughout the book, which kept things fresh even when revisiting similar themes. Though the content itself was often very heavy with raw emotions it never felt like it was too much or too repetitive.

Trigger warnings: death, rape, misgendering, transphobia, homophobia.