Claire C. Holland

This is a must-have poetry collection for horror cinephiles, fans of dark poetry, defenders of women's rights, horror fiction hoarders, and badass women who won't go down without a fight.

This is a subversive love letter to horror films and the trope of the "final girl." I don't know if you've noticed but women are not really depicted all that heroically in a lot of horror films - even if they do survive to the end. They are in need of saving, fall deep into stereotypes, and are constantly objectified and dissected as parts instead of people. Even though she’s the one who survives, the use of the final girl trope isn’t really all that empowering to women as many have pointed out.

Clare C. Holland’s use of the term “horror heroine” in her collection of poems returns power to the feminine, to the women who find within them the primal urge to fight and survive by any means possible.

And that definition isn’t just confined to the realm of horror movies. As Holland outlines in her rallying cry of an introduction—it’s been a pretty bad couple of years since Trump took office. But it’s also been a time of change, of women stepping up and saying “no more,” of role models and fierce, nasty ladies everywhere taking charge. These poems are for them. And if you agree, these poems are for you, too.

I agree. I am tired of old white dudes in authority too.… (mehr)

There's a deceptive power to this book.

I admit, I hesitated to pick it up. The marketing--from the cover to the title to the description on back--made me fear it would be more like an experiment than a powerful poetry collection in its own right. I also worried that I didn't know all of the referenced movies well enough to really enjoy it or 'get it', and so I held off on reading it even after I'd bought it. And then when I picked it up, I discovered, very simply, that I'd been wrong.

From the moment I read the author's short note at the beginning, the voice of the book grabbed me, and I ended up reading it in one sitting, only pausing to re-read particular poems and lines as they struck me. I've no doubt I'll read it again, but not because I did'nt 'get it'. True, there are some movies referenced via titles that I haven't seen, but the vast majority of the poems here transcend the concept that sets the book apart and broadcast such a vulnerable, intelligent anger--alongside powerful, gorgeous language--that not knowing the immediate source material isn't an issue. The themes, emotions, and language all speaks for itself, making for a powerful book which has far more resonance and weight than the slim volume and pop-culture packaging would suggest.

There were moments of language and meaning here which left me breathless and forced me to re-read, and others which forced me to smile even after what had been, admittedly, a horrible day. I put off dinner in order to keep reading, and I suspect I'll do the same with anything else Claire C. Holland writes.

This book is fantastic, worth reading and sharing and reading again. It is manifesto-made-poetry from a horror-lover's soul, and I adored every minute.… (mehr)

Not sure how to review a poetry collection in a single star rating but three stars "I liked it" seems right.

The poems, whilst ostensibly written from the points of view of different characters, almost all have the same voice to me. The stand-outs were Rachel and Clarice which both felt more individual and were perhaps not coincidentally my favourites.

The style and poetic devices used in most of them are very similar as well, which reinforced the samey-ness. This might be a product of the characters all being examples of (or related to) the "final girl" trope of course, rather than a failing of the writer, but it just didn't quite rise to something special for me.… (mehr)