Crowd Surfing with God

by Adrienne Novy

In its five year anniversary edition, Crowd Surfing With God surges back to life with updated work, new and unreleased poems, and a foreword by National Book Award-nominated bestseller Hanif Abdurraqib. This coming-of-age journey through poems tells a story of self-acceptance that discusses growing up with a rare genetic disorder and mental illness, family and being in a multifaith household, pop culture, and the acts of playing and listening to music bringing you closer to yourself and to healing.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2018

Reviews

[Sakshi J]

Let me start by saying- if music has ever saved your life, in any way possible, please read this wonderful collection of poetry.

Adrienne Novy’s Crowd Surfing with God (Published by Half Mystic Press) has been described as “a coming of age journey through poems: a story of self-acceptance that discusses growing up with a rare genetic disorder & mental illness, family & being in a multifaith household, pop culture, & the acts of playing & listening to music bringing you closer to yourself and healing.” - and it is exactly that, paired with diverse poetic forms and styles.

Through this chapbook, Novy talks about her relationship with god and religion, through music. Also played in with her bisexuality, disability[+constant visits to hospitals as a child] and finally, her personal understanding/relationship with womanhood. She talks about how music, poetry, and Anne Frank's[unedited] diary have continually helped her understand, and deal with her struggles, as well as have saved her life on multiple occasions. As someone suffering from PCOS as well, the lines ' I ask myself how anyone will love this garden if nothing can ever grow here' from the piece titled 'All That Grows Here' hit me right in the gut.

She ends this collection with how she is trying to re-learn what it means to fully love herself, even when it's rather hard to do so[something I have great difficutly in doing too]

Apart from the gorgeous content, I fell absolutely in love with the format of this book. The titles of the pieces listed at the beginning of the book are under the heading 'setlist'. Every piece in the collection is accompanied by notes on what inspired the piece, which is something I really enjoyed. And last but definitely not the least, this wonderful collection of poetry comes with a playlist made by the author, at the end of it.

All in all, this collection has sparked in me a love for writing again, something I have been struggling with lately. At the same time, it has got me questioning certain notions of religion and god, as well as my relationship with the two, and that is more than any book can do, in my opinion.

[Margaryta]

REVIEW FORTHCOMING

[Caitlin Conlon]

Review of the 5-year Anniversary Edition

I read the first edition of this collection almost exactly 5 years ago, and it was truly special to return to these poems half a decade later. In my first review of “Crowd Surfing With God” I called it an anthem for every teenager that’s ever cried to a band and wanted so badly for them to know that they’re part of your survival. I feel the same after this reread, but with an important distinction—these poems are not begging to be seen, or begging for attention. Rather, they present themselves with their heads held high & just /are./ Music is a religious experience in this book, & reading it made me wish I had a concert coming up. Made me remember the times where all I needed was a song to lift me out of my misery and into the arms of healing.

If you’re a fan of music, but especially the pop punk scene, this is a collection you’ll hold dear.

Original Review
Musical and heartbreaking, an anthem for every teenage girl that has ever cried to a band and wanted so badly for them to know that they are a part of your survival. Gorgeous.

[Lucy Allison]

What a collection of beautiful things! It has a huge range of poetry! It has a playlist! It has extensive notes on Novy's inspirations and processes! It has something about it that makes me want to overuse the exclamation point!

!!!!!!!

In all seriousness - Novy describes this collection as for sick kids, queer people of faith, and punks. I'm two of the three, and it's no surprise that I related to - and enjoyed - most the poems about growing up with a genetic condition and many thoughts about God. Unfortunately, I was denied a proper pop-punk phase by the reality of living in rural England with conservative parents, so the clever references to various bands and tours were lost on me, but that's in no way Novy's fault.

As soon as Goodreads gives the option to award half-star ratings, this one will be updated to 4.5 stars. I genuinely enjoyed this work. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Now to listen to Novy's playlist and see if there's any trace of a punk kid in me...

[Eric Tu]

In Crowd Surfing with God, Addy Renee asks us to sing so long and goodnight to our solitude and offers her hand out to crowd surf towards self-love. Addy brought me back to my junior year of high school everytime a My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, Fall Out Boy, or Green Day reference came up and I want to stay in these good flashbacks. Her debut poetry collection is a pop punk concert, a teenage angst anthem, and the perfect music note of nostalgia that I sang along to when I felt alone.

[Isabelle]

Novy compares God and her relationship to that which she loves - playing music: ' music is a preventative for self-destruction '. She explores her religion through music it seems -and where this may work with and against her: 'let’s get really queer on the chorus. Jesus can kick it with us when suburbia gets uncomfortable. ' Generally, there is a really positive portrayal of her faith: 'If heaven is a hive, I want to swim in it'.

There are a lot of references to her time spent in hospital for a arm that 'doesn't go all the way up' and there is an exploration of how she views herself with this disability. It is slowly revealed to be Cat Eye Syndrome. It seems hospital was a defining part of her childhood: 'you, the Sick Kid, were so brave today, swallowed the hospital library whole, called it taking your medicine. '

However, Novy has a great dark humour streak and turns her experience into light hearted words: 'the doctors took out my appendix along with unknotting the shoelaces of my stomach & intestines. my body is now a game of Two Truths & a Lie.'.

Later, Novy describes her struggle to see herself as a woman through the harsh realities which Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome brings her - a genuinely heart breaking line: ' I ask myself how anyone will love this garden if nothing can ever grow here'.

I was really touched by Novy's connetion to Anne Frank's (unedited) diary - that Anne's exploration of sexuality and the world around her, her own humanity, brought Novy confidence in herself. This collection is certainly varied and next to this heavier poem, I laughed at Novy's playful writing, twisting the Bible's creation text: '& so god created MySpace & god wore sleeveless denim jackets & shopped at Hot Topic & thought about stretching her ears & in the beginning god said, let there be alternative rock music in the early 2000s'. For some, rock bands really are representative of God!

In true form, this collection ends with a suggested playlist.

[Alice Paige]

Crowd Surfing With God offers up a mosh pit of poems dealing with disability, queerness, and self-acceptance. It's the perfect set of poems to read while listening to to MCR.

[Emilie Laik]

I had the highest honor of being able to read this before it was officially released, and then to see a few of the poems performed by Adrienne in person. Not only are the poems themselves beautiful, but seeing them performed is stunning. The combination of childhood struggles, a teenage discovery of self, learning to love oneself as a young adult, and the constant theme of chronic physical and mental illness paints a picture of the balance between victories and losses over the course of a life. I love the unabashed celebration of life and that which makes life worth living, and the raw reality of mental and physical illness intertwined.

[Karl Johnson]

This is a very small book that most people will get through in under an hour, but if you grew up in the 90's and 2000's and you've ever felt outside the society we live in, you'll keep coming back to it. It makes you feel understood in ways that are hard to express. These poems and lines from these poems will stick in the back of your mind but in a way that provokes some better thought. I highly recommend this book to anybody that I think will actually read it and usually just keep it in my bag for a short read when I'm waiting for the bus or something like that.

[Becca Grischow]

Adrienne does things with words that I, as a poet myself, did not even think to be possible. A must read for anyone with mental or physical illness, as well as anyone who has ever once gone through a pop punk phase (or is still in it).

[Ren]

Absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous. Some of the best word choice I have seen in poetry. Every poem will capture your heart. Adrienne Novy is going to go far in the world of poetry.

[Glenda]

These poems spoke to me on such a deep level that I ended up reading a few of them several times. The opening poem, A Blessing over the Stratocaster, took me back to my childhood and the few synagogue services I attended with my grandmother. I didn’t except the level of nostalgia that came with it. All of the music references to my favorite bands that I depended on made me feel seen and heard by someone who understood me. It’s a beautiful collection of poetry that combines music and religion to speak to that troubled self some of us still fight.

[William Wolford]

Adrienne does a fantastic job of being open and honest, even when that honesty is displaying heartbreak. I am not an expert on poetry, but I thought the writing and willingness to show what has broken and how the pieces were picked up and put back together was nothing short of inspiring.

That said, there are things that Adrienne has struggled with that I, a straight white male, am unfamiliar with, which lead to some of the poems being difficult for me to connect with. I try to be open to any idea that is not hateful or violent, but not being able to connect to some of the poems did make them less enjoyable than others.

I don't mean that as a criticism--the opposite, in fact--I love that Adrienne did not shy away from or hide anything, did not pander to open the book up to a broader demographic. I find that honorable.

I have two more things to say about the book. I cannot say that everything in it was life changing for me, but there are so many people going through so many journeys that I feel, if it fell in the right hands, this could certainly help many people through a hard time.

I believe Adrienne's star is already shining bright, and will only continue to grow brighter. I will certainly be a repeat customer.

[J Keith]

This book: I love it so much. Adrienne has such a way with words and every poem is different. Even if you haven’t dealt with some of the issues in this book, it’s still poetry that makes you feel heard. Please read this book! It’s 200% worth it.

[Alex M]

adrienne is not only an incredible poem, but an incredible friend. what a masterpiece.

[Matt McBride]

Sometimes scars lines on a map. Sometimes they are letters, and sometimes they are notes to song.