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.