Niteblade News

I’ve decided to start doing short book reviews here in the blog — I get more review requests than we have space for in the ezine and I hate having to turn anyone away. My first review is of a chapbook by Brandy Schwan, published by Apex Book Company.

Catacombs and Photographs is, as far as I can tell, the second book from poet Brandy Schwan, and it is well worth reading. When I first saw my copy I thought ‘Oh, a portrait of the poet for the cover. Well, this is doing to be a self-indulgent pile of crap’ but I was wrong. SO wrong. The cover, an image of Brandy looking sweet and slightly mischeivious is actually the perfect juxtaposition for the poetry inside.

The pieces in Catacombs and Photographs alternate between being darkly erotic and eerily child-like. I know that sounds like it could make for a creepy combination, and it does, but only in the best possible way. My favorite poems, were I to chose, would be “Mary Jane” and “Illness of Alice”.

“Mary Jane” is a slow, sensual poem that gave me shivers. I love the atmosphere of it and each word fit in its place perfectly, like a pearl. There were echos, even here, in this hauntingly erotic poem of the child-like aspects I mentioned earlier; repetition much like in the children’s chant ‘Rain rain go away’, but it worked. It worked and is awesome.

“Illness of Alice” is one of those poems that sticks with you long after you’ve finished reading it. It is, quite simply, brilliant. When I first read it I liked it, its theme, its mood. Then I re-read it and caught things I’d somehow missed before. Things that seem completely obvious the second time through, things like the posies… I won’t say more lest I ruin the poem for you, but it is beautifully wrought and well worth reading again and again.

The way I understand it Catacombs and Photographs will be released on Halloween as a limited edition signed chapbooks (only 100 will be released). If I didn’t already have a copy I’d be the first in line to pre-order…but I do. You don’t though, do you?

Catacombs and Photographs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Poetry, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.