Malignant Mirror Maze by D.E. Kerr: Review

I received a copy of D.E. Ker­r’s Malig­nant Mir­ror Maze for review pur­pos­es. As always, this review reflects only my hon­est thoughts on the book.

Malignant Mirror Maze
by D.E. Kerr

Pub­li­ca­tion Date: 21 April 2019

Genre: Poet­ry

 

 

The malig­nance of your love
Almost took over my life,
You consumed,
But Honey
I survived.

A short com­pan­ion piece to 2018’s Car­ni­val Games, with all the miss­ing moments too dif­fi­cult to write about at the time, detail­ing the ongo­ing trau­ma of past abuse.

Purchase a copy

My Review

Malig­nant Mir­ror Maze opens with a warn­ing:  “This is a book about abuse.”  Even so, I was­n’t entire­ly pre­pared for the emo­tions this col­lec­tion would bring to life.

I saw a lot of myself and my sto­ry in these poems, which I wor­ried would make it more dif­fi­cult to read.  I could­n’t have been more wrong–I read through it in one sit­ting and had to stop myself from going right back to the begin­ning to read again.  It dredged up pow­er­ful feel­ings but was like speak­ing to some­one who’s been through these expe­ri­ences.  It made me feel less alone.

As I try to describe these poems, I keep com­ing back to that same word: pow­er­ful.  The speak­er simul­ta­ne­ous­ly reclaims their power–their strength, their autonomy–while shar­ing their sto­ry.  She shares her sto­ry and con­trols the nar­ra­tive; some­thing that in and of itself is so incred­i­bly powerful.

Malig­nant Mir­ror Maze is an incred­i­ble chap­book, by an equal­ly incred­i­ble poet.  Hav­ing read this and Chron­ic Pix­ie Dream Girl, I can’t wait to read more by D.E. Kerr!

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.

Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads