How does one even write a book like this, so haunting and beautiful, full of love and grief? 
How does Maggie Nelson walk around with so much talent in her, without its sheer heaviness dragging her down?

For a book about a rape-murder within the family, it is not as dense as I expected and surprisingly easy to get through. It is not conventional poetry, more like a story written in verse.   

so brilliant, some of these pages will haunt me for a long time. such a unique way to pay tribute to a loved one that you never knew

 

oh how i’m a sucker for a story about family, the haunting of family, grief, and sisters. nelson paints a beautiful portrait of these experiences in this collection. particularly successful is how she can’t help but draw jane’s personality into herself. after my grandpa died, i found all i could do is think of the ways we were the same, how our habits compounded into each other. maybe that’s the easiest way to deal with loss, to fill it with ourselves.

reasoning for four stars: some of the poems and sections felt significantly weaker than others. nelson’s real strength is with her prose poems, in my opinion. my favorites were “lies” “sisters” and “ghosts.”