I read this collection over the span of about a week because there was so much to it. It's not exactly a short collection - my edition was about 70 pages, but each of the poems is pretty long - so that was one of the reasons. The main reason, though, is that the subject matter is just so serious and dark.

The gist of the collection is explained in the introduction. It's not something you should skip; the introduction sets the stage for the rest of the book and Olivia Gatwood is just as good at writing essays as she is poetry. This collection is about the true crime community. Those are basically stories about real-life crimes, mainly about women who get murdered. It's all about how the killer gets caught and examining what went on in the killer's mind and things of that nature. Olivia, though, gets obsessed with it in the same way a lot of women do. She can so easily see herself in the face of those poor women who are victims.

This really spoke to me because I recently got sucked in to true crime videos on YouTube. I couldn't figure out why I was so intrigued by them. It's absolutely horrifying and sad and angering to watch innocent women taken from life and their family left to mourn. You can't really have justice, even if the killer gets locked up forever, because you can't bring back that person. I didn't know "Life of the Party" was going to be about this topic. I'm not sure what I thought, going in, but it wasn't this. But wow, did it have an impact. I highlighted so many quotes and bookmarked lots and lots of poems.

This is the book for women who look over their shoulders at night, for women who double-check that the doors are locked, for women who enter every room with a flutter of their heart because there could be a serial killer behind the door. Because in the end, we're all afraid of the same thing. And this collection does a beautiful job exploring that.

TW: basically everything. Sexual assault, murder, violence...you know what you're getting into if you know about the true crime genre. Proceed with caution.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a book of poetry this is! Olivia Gatwood's writing brings you back to all those moments in your life, as a child, as an adolescent, as a young adult. You see yourself again in those moments. Moments of innocence and youth and carefree and uninhibited. And then. And then you see them through a filter of sexism and betrayal and violence and abuse and trauma, both overt and covert. Written so accessibly, so vividly, so emotionally. A book not to be missed.

Thank you to netgalley and Random House, I received an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Olivia Gatwood's poetry always amazes me. This book, just like her previous collection, definitely did not disappoint. One of my favorite spoken word pieces of hers, "Ode to the Women on Long Island." I recommend reading this, and then listening to her perform her works.

I really enjoyed this beautiful collection of poetry. While I was reading the collection I felt as if I knew the author and how she felt every step of the way. The writing style was absolutely amazing and was very well composed. Anything she writes I will read solely because of how impactful this collection was. Absolutely beautiful!

I love poetry, but often struggle with ‘loving’ a poetry collection. I love certain excerpts but it’s hard to read because it does not have the flow of a story.

‘Life of the Party’ by Olivia Gatwood was not like that. This book is comprised of poems reflecting the dangers that come along with being female. Through rhyme, or story, or found poetry, the book reads like a history in growing up. The poems go through the adolescence and onward of a young girl and the players in her life. It was beautiful, and it was painful. The realities are not danced around, but called out.

It was a beautiful and necessary read. I can’t wait to read anything else Olivia Gatwood writes.

(Review link will be live on July 21)
https://sixofqueensreads.wordpress.com/?p=163

I first discovered Olivia Gatwood through her spoken word poetry on YouTube. "Ode to the Women on Long Island" happened to show up in my recommendations and, always eager to find a new poet, I clicked the link. From there, I fell in love with Gatwood's visceral descriptions of bodies, womanhood, and survival, and felt her prose was sharp and biting but without the mindless cynicism of many "feminist" texts. I wasn't impressed by Gatwood's first collection, <em>New American Best Friend, </em>but I put aside my reservations and picked up her sophomore work in the hopes that her style would be more to my taste in her latest work. </p>

To say I was impressed is an understatement: Olivia Gatwood absolutely blew me away. One of my favorite poems in the collection depicted the speaker and a friend reenacting Catholic mass in a way that felt real to my own experiences as someone raised Catholic in a way that no male depiction of the same experience ever could. Moreover, her "found phrase" poems, describing ripped-from-the-headlines events with actual phrases found in news coverage, repurposed the narrative of the "good dead girl" into something less exploitative. I found myself checking over my shoulder as I read her poem about locking her windows after reading a headline that a girl was found dead after someone pried open her window with a butter knife - and, while her poetry was always visceral, the gore was minimal and the violence understated compared to the coverage of true crime found in mass media.

As a feminist who loves true crime, I often feel conflicted and sickened by the coverage of women's bodies. While I love reading stories and following exciting real-world events, too often the coverage feels disproportionate and sensationalized, like women's bodies are literally nothing but objects for consumption. Olivia Gatwood's collection cannot single-handedly reverse this trend, as no single work can. But I feel confident that we're witnessing the rise of a powerful new voice on the literary scene and, moreover, the beginning of a new trend in true crime dedicated to honoring the victims and survivors rather than glamorizing their perpetrators.

A true crime poetry collection is one hell of a concept and Olivia Gatwood executes it flawlessly. Haunting, beautiful, fragile, and tough, Life of the Party offers a piercing, unflinching look into rape culture and our responses to it. These poems are at once simple and secretive, horrifying and mesmerizing, bloody and bashful. Gatwood's mastery is part Dickinsonian, part Diazian, and part something uniquely her own. Raw and real, Life of the Party is a master class in honest, painful, coming of age narrative poetry, a time capsule preserving perfectly the memories of the body and mind as they were in the moment, a scrapbook of found and collected items meticulously sorted, ready to be shared with the world.

I was drawn to the subject matter of growing up and the everyday traumas we experience as women, which Gatwood clearly addresses.
However, these are more journal entries or stream of consciousness reflections than poems, which weakened the potential impact this writing could have had.

This collection, inspired by True Crime, and part memoir, made me feel so many different things.
I honestly and truly enjoyed every single poem in this book. I loved how she sometimes changed up the format of her poems, rather than having them each be the same formula. It kept it interesting.
Not only was it a subject matter that I could relate to, the feminism piece really tied it together for me, making me feel absolutely powerful as a woman.
Detailing her most intimate experiences growing up as a woman, dealing with misogyny, sexuality, self-acceptance, and the all too real fear of being murdered, It's hard not to relate, and be inspired by Olivia's candid honesty.

Some poems made my heart ache so bad I had to stop reading, briefly, before I soon picked it up again.

This collection is so incredibly well done, and I will surely be buying a physical copy when it gets released in August.

My rating : ★★★★★ (5 stars)

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had seen live videos of Gatwood's poetry and was impressed. This collection is no less impressive. However, I wish I could hear her perform some of these pieces.

DNF at 24 pages.

While the book seemed to be decent, I was not aware of the amount of violence against women that would be chronicled in the book. It was too triggering for me to read at this point in my life.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This poetry book was everything! I’m in love with Her Olivia Gatwood style of writing. Dark, sexy, and emotional the perfect combination

This collection of poetry is very raw, deep, powerful, dark... just wow.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thought there were some amazing poems!! And some were way to dark for my liking to the point I was feeling comfortable, but overall a good book!!

I received a free ARC of this book in return for a honest review.

Olivia Gatwood's "Life of the Party" is about the cloying fear of violence and murder that girls live with. The poetry is heavy, a haunting in words, and it's sometimes uncomfortable. But it needs to be said. It's a painful reminder of the danger that is associated with girlhood, but it's also freeing in a way to recognize these universal experiences for what they are - universal.

Gatwood's prose is beautiful and stirring. Her poems reference killers and victims and some who may be both. Some poetry books don't tell a cohesive story - just groups of poems on pages. Not this one. There are chilling subplots and tangents, asides and reveals that re-contextualize poems that were beautiful the first time through and horrifying the next.

These poems are striking and haunting and resonate long, long after they've been read. I definitely recommend picking "Life of the Party" up when it comes out!

Life of The Party by Olivia Gatwood
.
📚 Through a collection of poems, Gatwood explores how society has shaped her fear towards men, as well as her fascination toward true crime. She delves into her own coming of age story and discovers that this fear has been forming and growing since the days that she recognized what is expected of her as a female and the power/powerlessness she has over males.  How the fear is not irrational, but actually formed through life experiences in day to day life, by simply being a girl.  How little by little, it was only natural to grow protective of her body and to want to seek out ways to prevent harm coming her way (such as venturing into the world of true crime). But what if true crime is misleading...only sharing stories of white women, pretty girls, or stories that shock us? Why not share what happens everyday in the smallest of ways to more women than we care to acknowledge for one reason or another? These fears that are real in many women (regardless of them being small or powerful) and the adjustments we make as we walk to our car with a key held between our knuckles, pick an outfit to wear that doesn't incite the opposite sex, take self-defense classes just in case we need it, how we carry ourselves so as not to give the wrong idea, watch what we say so that we not lead someone on, etc. THIS modified version of us has been formed through our own experiences and those of girls left and right. Here, Gatwood shares hers.
📚 It was an eye-opener to read these words. The poetry was relatable in unexpected ways, making me think about my own fears and adjustments of my day-to-day life. I too have reasons for my resting bitch face; a face I put on when I'm not resting, but actually protecting myself.

Incredible. Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve read something that produced such a visceral reaction in me I haven’t been able to sum up my thoughts about it. It’s also been a while since I related so deeply to the rawness and beauty that exist both in Olivia Gatwood’s words but in the feelings behind them. Wow. For fellow deathlings and feminists, this book is an essential read, and I’m so glad I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy via NetGalley. It’s just breathtaking. Absolutely incredible.

Law & Order: SVU meets the Button Poetry YouTube channel

**Trigger warning for violence against women, including rape. **

If you have a son, how will you love him?
She is pacing the living room,
while the Thanksgiving Day Parade
plays behind her, a montage of inflated
cartoon bodies, floating slow
down 6th Avenue, smiles
painted onto their faces.

I consider not responding.
I consider explaining that I can love him and not trust him. I consider saying that I won’t
love him at all. Just to scare her. Instead, I say,

If I am ever murdered, like,
body found in a ditch, mouth
stuffed with dirt, stocking
around my neck, identified
by my toenails, please don’t go
looking for a guilty woman.

(“My Grandmother Asks Why I Don’t Trust Men”)

***

16. Laughter is not about humor,
it is about acknowledging a shared joy.
Laughter is about bonding.

EXAMPLE: WHEN I HEAR MEN LAUGHING,
I DO NOT ENTER THE ROOM.
I CRAWL HOME IN THE DARK.

(“Mans/Laughter”)

***

Aileen, I wish I could’ve taken you there.
It’s too late now. I wish you hadn’t hurt all those people.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know you hate it when I say that,
what I meant was that I wish all those people hadn’t hurt you.

(“Aileen Wuornos Isn’t My Hero”)

***

In the Author’s Note, Gatwood writes at length about her obsession with true crime shows, and the resulting – if paradoxical – feelings of fear and control they instilled in her:

“I want to believe that the motivation behind most true crime is to bring to light the epidemic of women’s murder worldwide, to use nonfiction storytelling as a method of illuminating a clear pattern. But I don’t believe that. If that were true, it wouldn’t focus on crimes committed by random strangers, and instead would reveal the much more common perpetrators: men whom these women knew and often loved. If true crime were truly mission-oriented, it would focus on the cases that are not explicitly perverse and shocking, the ones that are familiar, fast, and happen at home. If true crime sought to confront the reality of violence against women, it would not rely so heavily on fear-mongering narratives of cisgender white girls falling victim to men of color.”

LIFE OF THE PARTY: POEMS is a reaction to these shows, and the culture that spawned them. The same culture that taught her to fear men, and her own body. These poems are about crimes true and fictionalized; about violence against women, in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological; violences so conspicuous that they are impossible to ignore, as well as the “smaller” insults called microaggressions. Gatwood identifies and names these things, embodies them in her verse, gives them life in her words – all so that she may eviscerate them with the same.

Gatwood’s poems are at at once stirring and despondent; beautiful and cutting (not that the two are mutually exclusive!); fierce and feminist AF. LIFE OF THE PARTY is both a memoir and a cultural history; some of the loveliest and most heartbreaking poems are those which incorporate actual headlines from real-life cases: “Murder of a Little Beauty” (JonBenet Ramsey), “Body Count: 13” (the West Mesa murders). Aileen Wuornos is present in so many of these verses, even when she is just passing through, like a visitor in the night.

There are odes to the women of Long Island (“when I show them the knife I carry in my purse, tell me it’s not big enough”), b*tchface (“resting b*tch face, they call you but there is nothing restful about you, no”), unpaid electricity bills, and a lover’s left hand. Woven throughout the named poems is an untitled, serialized piece about Gatwood’s babysitter, the cool older girl who, by book’s end, either overdosed – or was killed by her abuser, depending on your POV.

Yet, as bleak and depressing as many of these poems are/can be, LIFE OF THE PARTY ends on hopeful notes: “All of the Missing Girls are Hanging Out Without Us,” having a grand old time (surprise!) and, “In the Future, I Love the Nighttime,” thanks to the virus that did away with all the violent-minded men in the world. (Turns out the apocalypse is just peachy!)

This was one of the best books of poetry I have ever read. It was a brilliant exploration of society's fascination with murder and the stories of victims, as well as being part memoir. I want everyone to read this.

A powerful, biting poetry collection about violence against women and the messed up ways society romanticizes it. Definitely going to be picking up more of Gatwood's poetry in the future-- she's one of the strongest poetic voice I've ever read.