“Fog
It never covered everything like a shroud.
It was always suspended over
like nineteenth-century women waiting for
proposals.”

A collection of poems, “Fog and smoke” portrays the events of recent years through witty metaphors, as well as the human condition everybody endured during the pandemic and the destruction of nature around the world, specifically in California.

Divided into three parts, the collection dwells on the environmental crisis depicting the way the cities are being surrounded by the smoke caused by wildfires and how death became excruciatingly present throughout the pandemic. Another topic included in this book is relationships, which range from romantic to platonic, where the author enhances them to the eyes of the reader even if they are not considered meaningful.

Katie Peterson took the mundane feelings everyone experiences to twist them into beauty represented in a precise set of poems, her thoughts need to be in the heads of every person, no matter the age.

I’m grateful with NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity of letting me read this before its publication.

Katie Peterson's Fog and Smoke is very much a collection of its time as it explores life within a pandemic and a climate crisis. No doubt its relevancy will remain as we navigate our lives in societies irrevocably changed by Covid-19 and in a world increasingly showing signs of abnormal and rapid climate change.

The first section, Fog, reflects upon the isolation felt during the pandemic and how this impacted us, often far deeper than we would care to admit. While the detachment and fragmentary nature of this poem deliberately mirrors how many of us felt, I found it difficult to connect with it as a result. But again, perhaps that is the very point, it just didn't read as well as Peterson's later poems in this collection because as Peterson then writes about parenthood, birth and death, and then crisis, the human at the centre of it all became palpably relatable.

In these later poems, Peterson's style is steeped in line-level brilliance, romantic narrative and this constant sense of time being far too fleeting. I felt the ache, the desire for everything to slow down, despite just coming out of a time where things came to a standstill. This juxtaposition is caught in Peterson's work, masterfully. And so, despite my difficulties with the opening part, I can appreciate Peterson's intentions and dedication to poetic craft.

I didn’t particularly liked the first poem because it felt a bit long for me, if you look at it my favorites ones from this collections are the shorter ones because I feel like they pack much more of a punch. I do think there are beautiful quotes in this collection and that Peterson is talented, however the first two parts felt a little disjointed and I like a collection with a story to tell, with a bit of narrative throughout and that makes me feel like I spent some time with the poet, getting to know them and their pains and joys. The third part made more sense to me, since it dealt with motherhood and having a daughter and also wildfires, which can be compared very elegantly. Overall, I give this book a 3.75 out of 5 stars, but if it was just the third part I’d probably give it a 4.

I love a good book of poetry to act as a recovery agent, or a few moments to sit and think with the prose I'm presented. I am so thankful to FSG, NetGalley, and Katie Peterson for granting me digital access to this book before it publishes on January 2, 2024. I know it's a long time away for this one, but don't sleep on this stoic collection of art that is sure to put you in your feels in all the best ways!