All in the Family by Courtney LeBlanc: Review

I received a copy of Court­ney LeBlanc’s All in the Fam­i­ly for review pur­pos­es. As always, this review reflects only my hon­est thoughts on the book.

All in the Family
by Courtney LeBlanc

Pub­li­ca­tion Date: Sep­tem­ber 24, 2019

Pub­lish­er: Bot­tle­cap Press

Genre: Poet­ry

 

 

Court­ney LeBlanc’s sec­ond chap­book, All in the Fam­i­ly, is a col­lec­tion of poems that delves into the nuances of rela­tion­ships with­in fam­i­lies: good, bad, and tru­ly ugly.

Out of Print

My Review

Since get­ting my hands on a copy of All in the Fam­i­ly, I’ve read it four times.  Frankly, this chap­book is just that good.

When I first joined the Twit­ter lit­er­ary scene, Court­ney LeBlanc was one of the first writ­ers whose work stood out to me, and she’s stayed a favourite ever since.  So, when Bot­tle­cap Press gave me the chance to review her sec­ond chap­book, I was so excit­ed to dive more deeply into her beau­ti­ful poetry!

All in the Fam­i­ly is a por­trait of just that–family.  Moments between rel­a­tives aren’t always ten­der and beau­ti­ful; that’s what makes these poems so incred­i­bly pow­er­ful.  Court­ney’s poems con­sid­er Moth­er, Father, Sis­ter, and Daugh­ter in all their imper­fec­tion.  These con­nec­tions are inti­mate, the rela­tion­ships ulti­mate­ly per­son­al, and yet the read­er is pulled into this fam­i­ly’s midst.  They, too, can feel these fam­i­ly ties–binding and, at times, suffocating–and inevitably think of those of their own.

These poems con­sid­er love, loss, and moments of frus­tra­tion, key ele­ments to any fam­i­ly tree.  I have no doubt I’ll be return­ing to this chap yet again, and I could­n’t be more proud to call Court­ney LeBlanc my press­mate!

About the Author

Court­ney LeBlanc is the author of the full length poet­ry col­lec­tion, Beau­ti­ful & Full of Mon­sters (forth­com­ing from Veg­e­tar­i­an Alco­holic Press), chap­books Siamese Sis­ters, All in the Fam­i­ly (Bot­tle­cap Press), and The Vio­lence With­in (Flut­ter Press). She has her MBA from Uni­ver­si­ty of Bal­ti­more and her MFA from Queens Uni­ver­si­ty of Char­lotte. She loves nail pol­ish, wine, and tattoos.

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