Welcome back! How have you been?
It has been such a long time since I shared a review with you. I’m starting my first full-time job in an industry that never sleeps and it is exactly what it sounds like. In the meantime, I’ve read so many great books that have definitely earned a place in my favourites list, dethroning my favourites of 5 years. I can’t wait to share it with you in my year-end posts. Have you read any new favourites lately?
We’re getting back to blogging with poetry. This one… is very different compared to the others I’ve read. Read on!
vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget
by Jazalyn
get it here
BOOK SUMMARY
A virus invades the lives of all humanity and causes a madness pandemic from the reminder of the past and the exposure of thoughts threatening to change everything, but then another virus attempts to erase the memories and recover the future, while a third virus scopes to save the new generations.
BOOK REVIEW
* A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
If there was dystopia
Jazalyn, ‘Inspiring Dystopia’ (vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget)
It would be more inspiring
So we must turn fiction and fantasy
Into functional creation
vViIrRuUsS is a collection of poetry that ponders and holds a mirror to society. It covers many themes such as mental health, injustice, dystopia, corruption, love, death, depression, existential dread and inequality. Most of them focused on injustice and corruption.
Initially, I was quite confused. While there are no specific genres for poetry, I didn’t understand how in my head, I had the idea that this was set in a fictional world with literal viruses that did XYZ. And in this fictional world, there were borrowed elements of ours, somewhat a science-fiction/ speculative-fiction genre, almost on the same shelf as Amie Kaufman’s Illuminae. But 26 pages in, I finally realised.
Half my confusion stems from the narrator..? the poet? As I read each poem, I have to think deeply about who’s saying it. Sometimes it feels linear as if the poem connects with the last. Then, you read another that stems from the perspective that feels almost un-human, somewhat like a robot gaining sentience. The tone is confusing, and so is the sequence of the poems, but I do see some hints of links from the overarching idea of the three viruses.
And lastly, from a personal standpoint. This collection was far from easy to read. It sounds interesting and was promising, but quickly I realised it wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing and I think the topics could’ve been explored deeper. Right now, it feels too surfaced, lacking a little substance and the only reason why I had pushed on was that I wanted to fully see how the 3 viruses displayed themselves, but it wasn’t clear nor memorable in any way. Despite that, I had some favourites, ‘apocalypse revolution’ and ‘everywhere and nowhere’, and I’m sure there are many that we will all relate to. Unfortunately, there was a lot of potential where this could’ve gone, and where it ended just wasn’t for me.
SKAVANSIEUR 