I read 50% of the poems in the collection and did not like them. I found the poems dull and they all blended into one. It's such as shame as there were a couple that had the potential to be fantastic but overall it was a disappointing collection.

It’s a poetry collection. Some of the poems I liked, others not so much.

I think my problem with this collection was how I just didn’t “get it” most of the time. So that’s on me. I’d read so many reviews praising this collection, so it’s just unfortunate that I didn’t love it as much as everyone else.

But I think another reviewer got it right, this is a book of some very pretty words strung together with no clear intention of what the author was attempting to convey. At times I got hints, but it just seemed to get lost in all the overwhelmingly flowery prose.

The cover is absolutely beautiful though.

The story of how this volume got to come into existence and of the author's experiences was quite an inspiring one and I am glad he shared it with us in the beginning in such an honest manner.

Further on, looking at the actual content of the book, that candor is preserved, but it's also wrapped up in layers over layers of imagery and confusing structures. Which I don't necessarily mind. I enjoy complexity and hidden meanings to chew on in the poetry that I read, as long as it's done in a purposeful way that helps convey a message or an emotion. Mostly, I found that to be the case here, but there were also many poems I didn't resonate with, that I felt distant from. The prose interrupted the lyrical flow, putting me a bit out of what I was reading and intesifying the sense of aloofness.

When that detachment wasn't taking place, however, I was marveling at the intricate titles, poems of their own, or at how reading this collection felt like witnessing the construction, brick by brick, experience by experience, feeling by feeling of a human being.

This is a copy provided by the author in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to him!

This book was sructured with two other books, the blue and black notebook, that took two decades to reunited a couple of poems. These ones are set of multiple ideas and thoughts captured by Justin in his twenties. By this permise I felt in love by the way that Justin presents his poetry and by reading it I could say now that this feeling never faded away.

“I am too old to be in the state of imagination

I am bleeding away the false ideas I was taught”

First of all, I would like to thank to Justin the kindness to let me reading his thoughts about the world and how his prespective about the people, the relationships and the past are dimensions so denses. His poetry is multifaceted and full of meanings that bring to us a autoreflection and introspection of how we deal with life, people and ourselves.

It was a really great book that shows up sensitive themes, like alienated society that lives by numbers, the people who aren´t true to themselves, the love and others bonds etc.

“I no longer know if I am real

or in product testing”

Justin is a great observer and this culminated in him criticize the things that he sees in a curious way, leaving rhetorical questions to all of us. This poetry is full of meanings and carry a lot of immagination and last but not least it is beautifully written!

I recommend this book to all the people who likes to enjoy a good time reading and reflecting about society and how we easily distract ourselves with bullshit.

“What is life if not chaos ?”

Happy readings,

Next to a Book.

https://nexttoabook.wordpress.com/2018/09/04/review-of-chemically-coated-personalitties-by-justin-rawdon-lipscomb/

This book needs to be mulled over, like a glass of wine. There is a rustic beauty to the words and it's almost like I can see the soul of the narrator as I read through the words. I loved the connection between the titles and the poems, they were very aptly suited together. Sometimes I was unable to figure out exactly what the author was trying to say but the titles made it easier to see or figure out what it all might mean.

I'm frankly not a huge fan of poetry, but I do like to read some now and then and since I published a volume of my own many years ago, I do feel a bit of an obligation to support such efforts by others. Unfortunately, I could not talk myself into supporting this particular volume and Im sorry for that.

My issues with this one were two-fold: firstly that it felt really pretentious - like the author was playing at being poetic rather than actually being poetic; like it came far more from the mind than the heart, and secondly that the poems were consistently whiny and maudlin. There was nothing uplifting here, and it was a depressing read. This was not helped by the fact that most of the time I had no idea what this author was waxing on about. I really didn't. Nor did I see a connection between the poem's title and the content of the poem, not that this seemed important to me but it was one more thing.

If the purpose of poetry is to invoke feeling in another and lure them into seeing the world through the poet's eye, then this was a fail for me, because it didn't evoke anything but confusion. I felt this from poem one, and throughout the book. It never changed and so it never improved. After about two-thirds of the volume, I gave up because I had got nothing from this at all save irritation with what too often seemed to me to be a litany of self-pity.

As an example, the very first poem, titled "Addiction, but No Quarter" began this process with the first line "The wood placed in my hand makes me different" but then the rest of the poem never came back to this so I had no idea what this meant. What was the wood? What was happening? Was it a baseball bat? Was it a stake designed to be driven through a vampires heart? Was it a cross? A golf club? Was it a metaphor for a forest? Or an erection? None of the above? I have no idea because the rest of the poem failed to offer any illumination whatsoever! In fact it only made things more obscure with lines like "Silence is too loud to hold the sound of nothing" and "Veins carry the liquid pain that holds us in an unworthy dominion of ourselves".

I realized as I read that poem, that no line was really connected with any other line. It was merely a series of disjointed statements which were so obscure that all meaning (I assume there was meaning, at least for the author) was lost for me. There may well have been a connection in the writer's mind, but if it fails to reach the reader, then what's the point? This is a problem inherent in writing poetry in that it is so very personal that there's a very real, grave, and sad risk that no one else will get it. Certainly, and especially if the author denies the reader some sort of 'in', it will mean far less to others than it meant to the author, and that was the problem I had with this entire collection of poems.

I wish the author all the best in his endeavors, but I cannot commend this volume as a worthy read.

Poetry for the complexities and the multitudes of layers that shape our lives, Chemically Coated Personalities is a heavy read, but one that brings forth a phenomenal new voice in the world of poetry. Whilst I didn't connect with as many poems as I would've liked, I can honestly say that there is at least one line within each poem that resonated with me on some level, whether it be something I identify with or simply appreciation for Lipscomb's talent for writing.

A highly recommended read, but perhaps not for beginners. I have only slight experience with poetry and this was occasionally a little too much for me, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the poems I listed above will stay with me always.

Chemically Coated Personalities is an exploration of the layers we accumulate in life. Technology, social media, vice or love -- there is always something leaving its residue, altering our psyche and changing the person who looks back at us in the mirror.
This collection calls on all the emotions that go into making us human to lay bare the secrets and possibilities we regret not facing.
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🕭This book has been one of the most insightful read of 2018 (for me).
🕭It stands under Poetry genre(but it's more literature type poetry).
🕭I know it is said for most poetry and selfhelp books that they are to be read in parts, but this one, you NEED to take this one very slowly in order to really enjoy it. And even if you did try to take it fast it won't do justice to the words since the writing style is very complex hence making the read heavy.
🕭Not recommended for beginners especially if you are not open to all types of writing styles.
🕭All the peoms are exceptionally beautiful. It contains random conversations in between at times, more like excerpts but I didn't enjoy those as much as I did the poems.

Lipscomb’s poetry is striking. Many poems land with something like an emotional punch. Even those that I may not have connected with, or enjoyed, contain an element, a line, or something that stood out. Especially striking is the foreword, and the open discussion of his process, his reliance on his notebooks. As a teacher, this is something I’d definitely share with my students - it’s revelatory and inspiring. One of the greatest strengths of these poems, however, is their titles. Each title demands you read the poem, just to see how the poem expands on that idea. Of course, it’s not always the case that that happens, but that’s okay, as the titles often serve as tiny poems of their own. Lipscomb’s first collection of poetry guarantees that you’ll be watching for more of his work.

I quite enjoyed this book of poetry. A lot of the imagery and symbolism was very fresh, making for evocative and interesting poems that kept my interest throughout the whole collection. There were a couple things about this collection that really stood out to me-- I was very drawn in by the foreword, which was the story of the two notebooks that the poetry came from. The second thing of note was the titles of the poems: they were often unexpected in ways that made you spend more time on each poem, helping direct you to see new and interesting levels of meaning that you otherwise would probably not know to seek out.

Interesting observations from the author as he reflects on life and lets his thoughts flow from pen to paper.