The Chaos Of Longing- K.Y. Robinson

Andrews McMeel Publishing

Book Review By Gemma E McLaughlin

This week’s book is so incredibly beautiful and devastating to read that I don’t even know where to begin. It’s different from my recent reviews as it’s my first poetry collection in a while, I’ve been doing a lot of novels the past few weeks but there is something so magical about this collection that I had to write something about it. Picking up the book for the first time, you imagine many things of its contents. Before even reading The Chaos Of Longing I had thought it would be soft, quietly truthful and almost painful to read. My favourite thing about these poems is that my first impressions were accurate, but so were many other things I hadn’t even stopped to imagine.

Many of the poems speak of tragic, terrifying events that people are rarely able to speak of, so there is this intense feeling of bravery from the words that resonates without you through the whole book. There is of course a darkness to the collection, the kind that occasionally fills you with the desire to close the book and stare out of the nearest window, holding back tears. As well as these poems there’s the ones about emotions and the baggage that comes from these events, these are just interesting to read, making the reader feel like they are somehow inside K.Y. Robinson’s mind. These words are lighter but somehow just as effective, sticking with you in their gentle truth and pain.

My favourite thing about this book is the way it takes large, dark themes that seem so far away, so scary, and turns them into something that can be read and understood. A lot of poetry I read is distant, almost ethereal, and though I love that style and it has a place in poetry there is certainly something different about this one. It may be written in stanzas, with metaphors and similes but The Chaos Of Longing feels real, like a conversation between one person and the world that is long over due. The words hit hard and the themes swirl round and round in your mind until they find a place of permanent rest there.

I believe The Chaos Of Longing to be so perfectly raw and emotional, and just so real that everyone in this world would benefit in some way from reading it. I love the writing style, the themes and messages expressed and the connection established on every page. This book is one that I think will always have some sort of hold on me, one that I hope as many other people as possible can experience. This collection is important, well-written, and stunning in every sense of the word and it is one I recommend to everyone reading, not just those around my age.