I am so late writing this review. This is not a bad book, and I liked some of the poems. Now, poems are so personal and I usually vibe with some and others don’t.
Now, I have to say, I have yet to this day found a poetry book that I have given 5 stars, and for me a 3 star book is still a book I would recommend.
I was so exited to read this book, and it did not disappoint me.

Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next! Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next!

I accidentally missed the time to download this amazing collection of poetry, so I borrowed it from the library and I was absolutely amazed. The past year I’ve been trying to read more out of my comfort zone and poetry has definitely has been my go to. I was so pleasantly surprised to really like these and I do truly hope everyone has the chance to read this.

I think that some poems were definitely stronger and more emotional than others but overall I really enjoyed myself.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this.

An excellent collection of powerful poems! I was already in love with the cover but the content? Chef‘s kiss. I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did because I am very picky when it comes to poetry, but here we are.

Really strong collection of poetry!

It is a great exploration of gender and it is fantastic that there are books like this out in the world for anyone struggling with their identity. I think this is a poetry collection that is accessible to people who may not read a lot of poetry (like me!).

Was not what I expected, did not finish book. Not my preferred genre, I should have read the details more clearly before choosing this book.

This is a raw emotional volume of poems that have a theatrical flair, naturally, and plays off famous theatre characters like Juliet, Hamlet and so on. Loved it! Modern poetry is hit or miss with me, and this one is a hit - the play of words, of structure, of everything.

A beautiful collection of poetry that is open and raw and real about what life feels like as a non-binary sexual assault survivor. It is lyrical and heartbreaking and intense and raw. Hard to read, harder to put down.

This is the intersection of three of my interests: poetry, theatre, and queerness. The way the poet uses theatrical devices and references to write about queerness and identity is clever and exciting but also terribly moving. I loved this collection and will be looking out for more from this poet.

Please Come-Off Book by Kevin Kantor is a fascinating, vulnerable poetry collection that is at times incredibly hilarious. Kantor covers musings of their lived experience, touching on gender identity as a nonbinary person, queer relationships, family, theater, love, trauma, fear, belonging, and loneliness. I adored Kantor’s candidness and vulnerability; and the content of some of their poems is so funny, especially the poems about theater! I would recommend reading the physical book as the layout of some of the poems really adds to the experience.

Thank you Button Poetry and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Book TW: transphobia, homophobia, sexual assault; death; suicidality

I’m not a poetry buff, so I can’t really say a lot about the collection from a technical standpoint, but I did like quite a few of the poems. There were some that the formatting didn’t work for me, but I feel like it’s normal to only have some poems connect with you out of a collection.
What I /did/ love was the solid connection to theatre woven throughout the collection. It helped to give a lot of context to the poet’s emotions and experiences that I may otherwise have had trouble connecting with.
As far as specific poems I enjoyed, the following were definitely my favs: Stage Makeup Syllabus; Secondary Character; A Short Play; and then the whole series of “The Academy” poems.
Overall, the collection is very short and can easily be read in a sitting. It has a lot to say about gender identity, theatre, and emotions. The poet had layed their life out on the page and even if I don’t connect with every single poem, that’s something that I can appreciate.

Before I begin my review of Please Come Off-Book, I want to take a moment to talk about escapism. In my mind, there are two key methods of escapism. The first is passive; watching tv, reading, being read to- an exploration of a world and narrative you have no control over, that you're immersed in but not 'of'. And the second is active; singing, writing, and theatre. As a writer, I spend a lot of time with other creatives, actively participating in escapism, and to varying degrees. But it's always the theatre buffs and drama students (certainly in my experience) who take active escapism to an ambitious and empowering level. They're not just creating a role for escaping into, they are escaping into that role.

I learned through Kevin Kantor's Live Stream with MilRep that 'Please Come Off-Book' is a theatre term meaning, "show up to the first rehearsal [having your script] memorised"; suggesting (even in so few words) the labour which has to go into a theatre production, even before rehearsals begin. My roles in theatre have always been behind the scenes (helping with props or writing etc) and this poetry collection made me miss the theatre. It spoke of a creative home, a world worth escaping to. But it also left me with the poignant reminder of how little theatre (and those who are part of the theatre experience) is appreciated in our modern society, even by those who attend.

During the Live Stream, Kantor spoke of the 'sacrifices' Non-Cis people must make of their 'personhood, for the sake of someone else's artistic vision.' Each poem chips away at the precedence set by former artists, directors, actors etc, that there's only one way to explore theatre, sexuality, gender and self. Overall, I found this collection of poetry to be charming, poignant, powerful and empowering, though I much preferred having the poems read aloud during the Live Stream, than reading them flat on the page. But I think that's the whole point of theatre and performance, isn't it?

I think this is my new favorite poetry book. I understand that many people will not enjoy it as much since they don’t connect with the topic the author presents, but the author and I share a lot,

Historically I have never been a fan of poems. Residual fear probably caused by the study of poems throughout my high school life.

But Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor is a collection of poems that will damn sure please even the most poem-hating person. Kantor writes with such comfort and lyrical writing, which left me feeling absolutely emotional after reading.

The interconnectedness of theatre cues, scripts etc. is innovative and serves a greater purpose than itself.

“I am sure that a man and woman is not all a body can be.”

I can’t express how much this quote means to me. It felt like an old friend comforting you, and that being non-binary is absolutely valid.

In the face of these trying times, Kandor has managed to deliver something that will clearly outshine in the face of it.

thanks to netgalley for sending me an arc for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the author’s struggles and journey as he came to embrace who he is. I was not familiar with Kevin Kantor before requesting this book, but I will definitely seek out future publications and slam poetry from them.

This poetry collection is really interesting in the way that it takes the theme of theatre, performance, play, and drama and weaves that into every poem. The style of poetry throughout is very much a continuation of the slam poetry or button poetry phenomenon and it definitely does have that feel for it, for example the long breaks line breaks the use of the space on the page to indicate pauses and emphasis on certain words. However, I feel that where it could have fallen into that trap of surface level "instagram poetry" - a phrase which I'm not particularly fond of, but it serves its purpose here - I found that the author actually managed to transcend that by incorporating a lot of techniques or technical writing elements that really help to enhance the message of each poem. I particularly loved the double entendre present in a lot of these pieces! This collection also has a lot of humour throughout it, so for example here are a couple of lines that I particularly liked:

"and I will be damned if I can't have my cake
and eat ass too"

"Because there wasn't enough room for expectation-defying-mind-expanding-binary-obliterating-gender-sorceress under special skills, so."

While there is a lot of humour, there's also a lot of complicated emotions explored in here. Sometimes the change would really be quite stark, which worked sometimes, though not all the time. Particularly towards the second half of this collection, it feels as though the author has gotten into the groove, or maybe I as a reader have just gotten the hang of the writing style; either way, I enjoyed the latter portion more than the previous portion. One poem that stood out to me in it's simplicity yet the emotional weight was "Dress Rehearsal: My Grandfather's Funeral". My favourite line in the entire collection comes at about 80% (-ish) in:


"so glory to the queers who live to see the credits roll
glory to the blockbusters that are not built upon a curb stomp"

This combination of the technical writing, the atmosphere of the theatre embued in every poem, the emotion behind the words, and the little elements of humour really made this an enjoyable collection to read.

This was an excellent and deeply personal collection. I felt that every single poem had something to say and did it beautifully. The collection cleverly uses theatrical themes and metaphors to shed light on the author's opinions and experiences of grief, gender, sexuality, family, media, and more.

This collection is really just stunning. Kantor's colloquial voice deftly combines comedy and poignancy against the backdrop of a theater conceit. I'm so looking forward to purchasing my own personal print copy of this book, and hopefully adding it to our collection at the library!

I loved this poetry book. I thought the poems were amazing and flowed well. I especially like the formatting for some of them, the poem set up as a play script, the boat one, and the makeup class one. The poems were beautiful and portrayed what they meant extremely well. I thought that this was definitely one of the best poetry books I've read.

Really enjoyed this. I don't fit the authors main target audience that might relate to his experiences better, but still was able to feel the messages being sent through the pages.