Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“This book is about the legal means by which fear—the fear of one who has more privilege than the person feared—has been used to rationalize the execution of those thought to be in leagues with the devil.”

Spectral Evidence is a collection of intellectually pretentious poetry at its best. These poems are like brain caviar, rich but an acquired taste. If you can endure this vernacular jungle gym, you will find gems of knowledge and perspectives worth holding on to.

I read 60% before not finishing. I enjoyed some of the poems, but sometimes it was difficult to figure out what situation the poet was writing about.

Overall, a good collection.

Pardlo is very lyrical in the way he writes each poem to construct a scene. The timeline was hard to understand and some poems needed double readings to truly grasp their meaning.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader edition.

I loved the concept of this, and the author’s note made me think this was going to be an easy five star for me, but it ended up feeling a bit all over the place. Some pieces really felt like they were being forced to fit into this collection just because they existed and needed somewhere to go, more than I felt I could easily justify.

Thank you to NetGalley & Knopf for the ARC

The usual disclaimer: as with any collection, there were some pieces that I liked and/or that resonated with me more than others. I don’t usually highlight quotes, but I highlighted quite a few in this chapbook. Between the number of excellent pieces found within, and the way the chapbook works as a whole, it’s a pretty solid 5 star collection for me.

Pardlo doesn’t stick to one particular form or topic, but every piece in the collection is somehow related to his theme of spectral evidence, a term which he explains in the opening pages. Short version: he’s exploring the concept of corrupted memory and ghostly afterimages. Marginalization is a major theme, and he plays with the idea of collective memory, the role of a witness, and the concept of performance. Sometimes his language is plain, sometime so florid that I had to reread the same passage several times to make sure that I had understood his meaning. The whole collection is carefully curated, and is often self-referential without being repetitive.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this collection as an ARC.