Popular on Youtube, and a Ted Hughes Award winner. Her work caused some controversy when Rebecca Watts wrote about it, claiming that "we must stop celebrating amateurism and ignorance in our poetry” (see PN Review).
Some poems have introductions, like you'd hear at a reading. For several of the earlier poems you're told how old the poet was. One of them (it's both at the start and finish of the "(mind)" section) was written when she was 8. On p.10 she writes "A lad I was 'seeing' at school called me an ice queen when I was about thirteen ... I took it on board far too deeply". Then there are 3 poems on the topic, written when she was 13, 14, then 17.
I like "Yanking", which is really a prose anecdote. "Blonde Jokes" (when aged 17) and "extract from Dés" (when aged 18) were amongst my least favourite. "Beautiful" (when aged 25) takes a page or so to build up to "As my friends sit once again chatting about how beautiful Victoria Beckham is/ I wonder if they're ever stepped outside and looked at a flower/ Or wiped the hated from their own faces and looked in the mirror/ At their own beautiful reflections". "Watching miserable-looking couples in the supermarket" and "Plastic bottles" do very little. "Midsomer Murder" ends with "but when roses are painfully laid/ on real graves every day/ why do we so love a murder story?".
Poems like "And we talk", "Hiccups" and "Fine" work for me ("A dead pig I mean" is too long) - a TV show like "Outnumbered" might use many such ideas per episode. Finally with "Voldemort" on p.90 there's a poem I like. It introduces a topic, explores it, then ends on a decent punch-line rather than a platitude. And I can see how "Shrinking" in the right situation would work well.
Other reviews
- lonesomereader
- sunflowerteeth (My initial thought upon reading the poetry book ‘Plum’ by Hollie McNish was that I didn’t like it at all. Upon first impressions I felt that the poetry was mediocre ... Upon finishing Plum I did fall in love with Hollie’s poetry. Her words are alchemic in which she fuses innocence with the wisdom of a sage as she peeks out at the world with huge inquisitive eyes, a free spirited mouth and an urgent, questioning voice.)
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