Bluets

I always want Nelson to deliver as much as I hope she will but, for me, it generally falls short. Crafted and considered but concepts, images, syntax, and diction feel more like there are for an instagram-y audience. It's hard to get lost in here, her work pushes the reader away but never exposes why. It's like perpetually eating the pretzels at the bar but your food and drink never arrive.

I wanted to love this book so much and thought that I would from my first impression, but after a short while I felt a little baited by the first few pages. For me it began heavily saturated with beautiful language and vivid descriptions that made me eager to read on, though through the rest of the book I felt like I was reading a lot of filler that didn’t invoke much emotion in me, the authors passion seemed dimmed and flickered inconsistently, and at times I felt the subject matter wasn’t connected or relevant to anything else on the surrounding pages. I do think many will and should adore this and it wasn’t at all unpleasant, I just mourned what I felt like it could have been compared to what it was.

I was excited about this book since reading an excerpt in The Hat. I read that poem 2x and went online and ordered it, knowing only it would come in the fall, and it did. I read the entire thing today sometimes skipping excitedly along at a pace maybe a bit too swift to really be taking it all in, but i was excited and it made me hungry for the next pages wit and frankness and it's the sort of work that just makes you hungry for more. You want to know all of it right now. I laid the book down for a minute to finish tending to what I had in the oven and my boyf. picked it up and started reading different parts aloud, loving it, laughing, we discussed the "depression is not like a fire" bit. I am so tremendously stoked this book exists, that it scratches the poetry itch I have for something lyrical and smart and feminist and libidinous and real and very alive. It is revivifying and truly great work. Perfect present for the cool woman in your life. Or the uncool woman in your life. Both. Either. All.