Thank you to NetGalley and Atmosphere Press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

The book as a meal: After a heart wrenching conversation with a friend about opening up, we shared an ice cream
The book left me: Grateful that my own experience in the same genre as the book was easier and less judgemental from the outside

Why did this call out to me?
The title grabbed my attention right away, then the genres, and then the description. It was like a perfectly blended cocktail with ingredients I craved right there and then

Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?
Pick-up-able, it is perfectly sized for a single session. I, of course, ate it up in one sitting

Issues:
The poems felt almost "slow paced"

Good things:
Lots of emotions emanate from each poem

How did it feel to read?
It felt a lot like watching someone leave the closet from the sideline, and feeling helpless with helping them in the process.

What mood would I read this in?
This is a pride month read, will be re-reading this in June

Where does this fall in my tier list ranking?
B tier, a very good collection of poems. I will be recommending this to my fellows

Favorite poems:
Open Air
Someone you shouldn't
For Fear
Sin and I
Play on

I want to thank Netgalley for an advanced ARC of this poetry book.

Review...

In the poetry we read we are taken though a journey of the author with their faith in Christianity as well as allot of Christians who live by conformity as well as cherry picking the faith for what suits their purpose.

The poems are simply put but do hold allot of depth for what they are saying and who they are speaking to, through all the poems one central theme hit me and that was to except yourself no matter what anyone else says, walk in your truth even if the world does not understand you. The pain and despair in some of his poems made me want to give the author a big hug 🫂 .

Never deny yourself to fit into narrow spaces
Christianity maybe worldwide but the meaning of the renewal of your mind doesn't fit well in their matchbox of hypocrisy.
(Just a little poem from me which come to me while reading this collection)

I was happy to discover that Travis Hupp had a new book out, because I very much enjoyed his first poetry collection, "Faster, Annihilators!".
If you happen to have read and liked that book, you will like this book too. Hupp brings back his knack for alliteration, his iconoclastic outlook on modern American life, and his ability to either use brevity to cut right to the heart of the matter ("Density", "The Same In the Dark") or use long form pieces to more thoroughly engage in mind-bending microcosm/macrocosm juxtapositions. ("Looking For Magic", "Throwing Bones",
"A Higher Purpose"). His sense of humor and acerbic wit are back, too, as in the poem "Brains Melt" where he addresses a maddening social connection with the line "slackjawed from standing by while you suck sense itself into your singularity" and gets exhausted enough by dealing with this person to ask "Infinity's still inexhaustible, right? Surely the science on that is sturdy".
One thing I really enjoy about this collection (and this poet's work in general) is that it's definitely not just all endless love poems like many poets seem to get caught up in. Hupp doesn't shy away from addressing politics, the metaphysics of religion, or social and interpersonal issues. His poems demonstrate how these aspects interrelate to one another. Even when he does bring up love, it's often to showcase how oppression of gay men in society has hamstrung his ability to express that love, or to bring something else to light other than just another love poem. For example, in the poem "Someone You Shouldn't" he asks "Do you love someone you shouldn't", then sidesteps the stereotypical star crossed love affair-type stuff the reader might be expecting and instead launches into an examination of the environment gay men (and men in general) are forced to try to love (or to do anything else human) in. Exposing how neglected men's mental health is in this country, Hupp writes "A real man's grin never loses its sorrow proofing, A guy too sad to shovel shit is just a brat, why can't you take it like a man, who isn't there, and be resigned to that".
Other poems address the possibility of the multiverse and tries to guess what Hupp's life has been like in parallel realities ("Wander Off"), grieve over the loss of his beloved dog ("Precipice"), try to explain the hallucinations he experiences as psychic phenomena ("By Now Beloved", "The Trap"), or find hope in his faith ("Good Thing", especially with the line "I say me last and everyone seems to agree. Good thing I believe in eternity). There's even a poem dealing with the demonic ("Possessed") You never know what Hupp will address next.
The Metaphysical section of the book features writing about his religious beliefs and the things he's repentant for, such as in the kwansabas "Never Over" and "Sin and I" (which is the title track, as it were).
There are a lot of poems in here that I've already read over again because I admire their craftsmanship and will continue returning to. It's not showy poetry that dwells endlessly on the touch of someone's skin, it's smart, issue-oriented poetry that remains intriguing and unpredictable throughout.

Im not much of a poetry reader but I’ve been trying to pick up more and expand my literary horizons lately. Downloaded an arc copy of this off of Netgalley.

I’m sorry to say I didn’t much like this. I don’t think that I was the target audience for this work. Most of the poems fell flat to me and they bled out of my brain very shortly after I read them. Nothing stuck with me and I doubt I’ll be able to remember anything I read in this a day or two from now. It seemed pretty generic to me. I was worried when I read the intro to this and it mentioned religion but I didn’t notice much religious writing in this at all which I find odd. This was just full of a bunch of generic love poetry that I’ve been reading a lot of in my poetry quest lately.

There was some are interspersed in this that I did really enjoy though.

Honestly can’t say if I recommend this. I guess if you’re a poetry fan give it a try. It’s a short read and can be finished in a day if you’re determined about it.

Thank you to net galley for this arc copy of this book. This is my 1st time reading poetry and I sadly didn’t like it. Some of the poems in this book board me and didn’t really inspire and intrigue me enough to want to read them. I think some of the longer poems could have been made into shorter poems. I liked the last poem though where he dedicated to his beloved dog that was such a sweet poem and the drawing of the dog was so cute. I am not a huge fan of the cover as I don’t understand the blood aspect of it sadly. The man on the cover and the green background is a good choice for the book I would suggest. I may pick up more by this author in the future xxx

This just didn’t really hit for me. I was struggling through the poems and felt that some of them could have been broken into two or three poems instead of one long poem. I don’t know if I will continue checking out any new works from this author. I just ended up zoning out for most of poems while reading.