It's Poetry, Baby

I've been on a bit of a poetry kick lately.  Reading poetry, writing poetry.  It all started when I was helping my son look for poems for a school assignment, so I was reading a lot of them.  And what I noticed is, although there are some nice whimsical poems and some that express awe, most of them tend to be darker, filled with angst, or dread, or grief, or melancholy and a whole host of other negative emotions.  This is probably because when people are happy, they are out and about doing things, not sitting around writing poems.  But when they are sad or depressed or grieving, they tend to hole up by themselves.  And if they are a poet, they write poetry at those times.  It is a way to deal with those feelings.  A catharsis, so to speak.

I just finished a book where the main character has had a traumatic experience that she can't remember, but bits and pieces of it are coming out on paper.  It is called Oblivion, by Sasha Dawn.

I KILLED HIM.

HIS BLOOD IS ON MY HANDS.

HIS HEART IS IN MY SOUL.

I KILLED HIM.

One year ago, Callie was found shivering in an abandoned apartment, the walls covered in her red-inked scrawls. She remembers nothing of that night. Nothing of the thirty-six hours before. All she knows is that her father, the reverend at the Church of the Holy Promise, hasn’t been seen since. Neither has Hannah Rynes, a young girl from the parish.

Since that fateful night, she's been plagued by graphomania – a compulsion to write. The words that pound in her head and flow from her red felt-tip pen onto the pages of her notebook, onto her jeans, onto her limbs, make no sense, yet they may be the key to unlocking her memory.  - inside book jacket

Now, of course the main character is not really trying to write poetry, although the boy in the story tells her that that's what it is, like lyrics to a song (which is essentially poetry set to music - two emotional bangs for the buck)  Which brings me to what was so amazing about this story.

Wait, wait, first I think I should tell you what was NOT amazing about this story and get it off my chest and out of the way.

First:  This book has my two biggest pet peeves (see post discussing this topic here) - guys who say "baby" and people behaving badly.  As for the dialogue, I guess some people like that so who am I to say otherwise?  And as far as the bad behavior goes, I get why the author did it; she is setting up the kind of relationship the main character has with the side characters, both of which move the story forward.  I just think there could have been a better way to do it.

Second:  Too much relationship drama.  Along with the bad behavior, this is a big distraction from an otherwise perfect story. I feel like it totally messed with the atmosphere of the main story.  I understand the need for a side story, but it could have been done in such a better way (like Maggie Stiefvater does in The Raven Boys - plenty of side story to go around, but fits perfectly with the whole vibe of the main concept).

Third:  This story features an unrighteous religious leader masquerading as a righteous guy, which always creeps me out (and not in a good way).  This is why I have rarely enjoyed a single book about religious cults.  Of course, this was also necessary to the story, but maybe he didn't have to be the Reverend.


Okay.  So now that we've dealt with all that, lets get to the good stuff.  The amazing stuff.  The stuff that made me give this book four stars even though it probably could have been 5 stars (Gasp!  I know I almost never do that!) if the author had fixed up those things I didn't like.

Amnesia. Missing persons. Family secrets. Buried secrets (literally!). I really, really loved the main concept in this book.  These are all the kinds of things I enjoy reading about.  And they are very well done.  The clues are doled out at just the right pace to develop the mystery and reveal the secret perfectly.

And we can't forget the graphomania.  Not once in the 700 plus books that I have now read, have I ever come across a story where a character has graphomania, so yay, let's hear it for being unique!  But more than the novelty of it, is how well it is done.  This is exactly why the boy tells Callie that what she is writing is poetry.  Because it is.  But it is also creepy as all get out.

Here are some examples of the things she writes:

Burn her. Burn her. Burn her.
Burn her in an urn.
Crucify.
Crucify, quarter and stone her.
Buried alive, buried alive, buried alive . . .

and

Flutter shy, shutter click.  Cluttered skies scuttle quick into the vast unknown, into the vast unknown, into the vast unknown.

and

Close close close close close the crimson door crimson crimson crimson crimson door crimson door door door close the crimson door in your mind . . . 

The author also describes what Callie experiences during the blackouts she's been having, as well as when she dreams:

I stifle a sob and press the blade of my shovel to the wet earth.
Crucify.
It dawns on me: I must be digging for my father's body. . . .
I see nothing but dark bleeding into the beyond. . . .
I'm numb, leaden, planted in the earth like an ancient oak tree. My roots intrude on my father's grave, push into his remains, curl about his bones.

and

A barrage of raindrops pelt the back of my neck like bullets from an automatic weapon.
Dig. Chink. Sift.
Dig. Chink. Sift.

and

In the black of night, I'm rowing. Water is too choppy. I'll never make it. Never make it. Never make it. 

See what I mean?  I never cease to be amazed by the power of words, and these are some powerful words.  The depth of emotion, the suggestion of violence, it's no wonder this girl has lost her memory!  And it is coming back to her with all of the force of a horrific secret.  Once again, I am amazed at the brilliance of the author, not just for her word choice, but for choosing this method to slowly unveil the clues and unravel the mystery in this book.

It would have been a terrible shame to go through all of the good stuff to have a stupid ending, and I am very happy to say that the ending was great.  Everything was tied up nicely, we got all of our questions answered, and there was even a surprise twist as a bonus that we never ever saw coming.
Definitely a book worth reading.

And on a poetry note, check out my blog's poetry page, which you can find in the menu to the right.


Rating:  4 Stars
Reading Level: 730 Lexile
Age Appropriate: Upper Grades (mature subject matter plus a lot of bad behavior)
Page Count:  400
Genre:  Thrillers/Suspense, Mystery, Romance
Keywords: family secrets, murder mystery, graphomania, romance, mental illness