Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Victims by Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo Review

Today Alex recommends a poetry collection by Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo. We hope you check it out!


Victims by Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo

"Victims is a relentlessly evocative, fearlessly imaginative examination of the emotional impact of torment. Sometimes we feel it from within the victim’s tormented bodies and minds -- at others we are forced to bear cruel witness, helpless to prevent the pain as it is inflicted mercilessly by a cruel villain. It is a masterful volume of empathy, written by two veteran poets who know the full spectrum of pain upon which a victim -- usually, though not always, innocently -- suffers the wrath of a rogue, be it historical, imaginary, or spiritual. It is also written by two powerfully visionary women, collaborating to show the pain that women, especially, have often endured across history and continue to suffer through in the present (and likely future). This book is feminist, yes, but it is not simply a vehicle for warranted female rage. It is an extraordinarily gritty book of poetry, focused on feeling and empathy and stripping horror of any seductive veneer, while using the speculative lens of “what might be” to not only warn us about what inevitably happens when power is wielded against the helpless unsparingly, but also what might make it even worse than we could ever imagine. This book bends sadism toward a different angle; it seeks to change the reader and it will. —Michael Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Freakcidents."

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Alex's Review


VICTIMS is a poetry collaboration from Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo. It is dark, raw, powerful, and full of rage. Each poem tells a story from a different perspective of one we think we know all too well. Each line helps to paint a picture for us to better understand the victims of so many scenarios. Simon and Turzillo force us to examine some horrific issues through a different lens. Sometimes it can be unsettling, but it is always necessary and important. These are sharp and witty poems that bite and haunt. My favorites include "Outline of a Murder," "Saint Theresa and the Fuck Me Shoes," "Chocolate for Twins," "The Defense Rests," "The Girl with the Pet Spider," and "Tamir: Samaria Keeps his Cast-off Teddy." All of the poems strike some kind of nerve, but the ones I listed will resonate with me for quite some time and I am changed for reading them.


Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about Victims and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.




Alex is a Horror Spotlight contributing reviewer. You can find Alex on Goodreads, on Twitter as @finding_montauk and on Instagram as @findingmontauk1.



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