I received a copy of D.E. Kerr’s Chronic Pixie Dream Girl for review purposes. As always, this review reflects only my honest thoughts on the book.
Chronic Pixie Dream Girl
by D.E. Kerr
Publication Date: May 31st 2018
ebook; 33 Pages
Genre: Poetry
Not your dream
Not your girl
I am not anything
I seem.I am chronic
I am angry
I am a fighter
Most of all
I’m a survivor.The musings of a chronically ill, alleged Manic Pixie Dream Girl sick of the label and ready to tear down the assumptions given.
Purchase a copy
My Review
I’ve been lucky enough to work with magazines like Blanket Sea that showcase poetry of the “chronic” sort (like my poems Wintergreen and The Cure, published with them a few months back!). I’ve even got a manuscript in the very early stages that considers degrees of life with chronic illness, mental and physical. But, before reading D.E. Kerr’s Chronic Pixie Dream Girl, I’d yet to read a collection of just that.
With that in mind, I was immediately drawn into this chapbook. When we first talked about my reviewing it, the title itself caught my eye and, as I started reading, my excitement was justified:
“Do you want a list
Alphabetical maybe,
Or would you prefer
To know
About my chronic ills
Chronologically?”
-Mostly I’m Just Sick of Your Assumptions
From early on, I was refreshed by reading these poems. While reading, I felt as though many of these pieces could be looking at my life, too–the references to symptoms and diagnoses especially.
This is a shorter chap, so it’s easy to read in a single sitting. I spread it out over three readings myself –I love to make a good book last as long as I can!
On a more craft-based point, I was excited to see an assortment of rhyming poems. Rhymes may not be “in,” but it’s a tool I highly respect–a well-done rhyme can be wonderful!
In sitting down to write this review, I came back time and again to one word: “refreshing.” It may seem strange to think that for a book about such a heavy topic, yet, for me, as someone with similar “chronic ills,” it was true. It’s refreshing to see my own diagnoses within a poem (that I didn’t write!). It was refreshing to see them alongside the lightness of a rhyme. I wanted to keep telling our speaker, it was refreshing to be reminded that we aren’t alone in these feelings and experiences.
Be sure to pick up your own copy of Chronic Pixie Dream Girl when it comes out in a few days and Kerr’s other books! Plus, stay tuned for a future review of D.E. Kerr’s Malignant Mirror Maze here on Pencils & Pages!
About the Author
D. E. Kerr writes confessional poetry and fiction within Melbourne, Australia, on her phone or laptop, scrawled in notebooks or on napkins — whatever she can find to write upon. She was featured in the 2018 charity poetry anthology “Please Hear What I’m Not Saying” edited by Isabelle Kenyon, all proceeds of which went to MIND, a UK based mental health charity. Her debut poetry collection “Carnival Games” will be released on April 21st 2018 in both e‑book and paperback.
When not writing, she can be found reading with coffee or tea (usually coffee), playing Legend of Zelda, or watching an obscene amount of a TV series in a short amount of time.
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