Book Review: Drops of Insanity by Jeff Oliver
Title: Drops of Insanity
Author: Jeff Oliver
Release date: October 31st, 2021
Huge thanks to Jeff for sending me a digital copy of his poetry collection!
He reached out and asked if I’d want to give it a read. I said ‘absolutely, but probably not until December.’ Turns out I lied, ha!
Today is snow-maggeddon here where I live and because of that, my entire morning of work has essentially cancelled and rescheduled, so I figured I’d dive in and make my way through a few poems. Well, it turns out the writing flows, the poems are short and sweet and over the course of 90 minutes or so, I was able to wrap this up.
What I liked: ‘Drops of Insanity’ tackles a lot of dark topics. Jeff does a great job of keeping most of them metaphoric, but in some instances (especially the shorter ones) the subject matter is painfully obvious. Deceit, deception, abuse, hurt, and more all come barreling to the surface.
Stand out poems for me were;
‘The Most Beautiful Lies’ – three lines that told an entire story worth of hurt.
‘It Just Is’ – four lines that offer a powerful desire. Really vast in scope for only nineteen words.
‘Priorities’ – a poignant piece about change and one’s surroundings.
‘”Fly” All the Way Over It’ – a powerful mantra to never look back.
‘Searching for Sanity’ – a four line poem that describes significant inner turmoil.
‘Fear the Monsters’ – probably my favorite of the bunch. A short poem that acts as a visceral reflection on humans.
‘Her Soul to Keep’ – the longest and most ambitious poem in the collection, it tells a brutal story filled with twists, turns and plenty of blackness.
Oliver did a great job of keeping things feeling fresh throughout and work the words in a way to make them both deep but also accessible.
What I didn’t like: I say it every time, but I’m no poetry scholar, just a dude who reads and loves dark fiction. The only thing that really stood out for me that I found a bit overdone or repetitive was the frequency of exclamation marks. Maybe it’s because my own editor always tells me that using too many reduces their effectiveness, but there was a significant amount in here, which made some feel more like hard rock lyrics than introspective poems.
Why you should buy this: If you like dark poetry, this one is a great collection to add to your own TBR. Jeff does a lot with a little, which I find works really well for me, when I read poetry. He kept everything feeling fresh and it didn’t feel like things were reused over and over and that you were reading the same poem told multiply times in different fashion.
A really solid collection.
4/5
