As someone that is completely new to reading poetry - I have to say that this book of poetry was incredibly easy to follow and enjoy if you are new! I would definitely recommend to anyone as a way to ease themselves in to this way of writing; that can often seem quite daunting if you haven't really dipped your toe in.

These poems are very 'of the now' - dissecting societal issues mainly when it comes to queerness, 'otherness' `and living in a society that doesn't account for your identity.

My favourite poems -
'I Am Sure'
'A Poem in Which the Academy is Forced to Create New Categories'

Would recommend (as a poetry novice)

I am going to be honest, I have no idea if poetry is for me. This was my first poetry collection and as a fellow non-binary theatre enthusiast (techie in high school!) I was very drawn to the description. I loved a lot of the poems in here and it did get very dark. Certain poems really resonated with me and others I read and appreciated for what they were. One thing I really enjoyed was how the whole collection was formatted through the stages of a play, but not a usual act 1, act 2 etc. It brought a lot of separation in tone of the poems and what part of Kantor’s life they were a product of. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for LGBTQ+ poetry, a collection about self-discovery, and for anyone looking to broaden their scope. I unfortunately don’t have a full trigger list but I will leave the ones I recall down below!

TW’s: Sexual assult, rape, self-harm, death of a family member, homophobia, the f slur, misgendering, suicide, abusive parents

Wow, this little book of poems surely packs a punch. I've only recently got into reading poetry for pleasure, having found it hard to access at school, but I raced through this in one sitting. Maybe I just needed to find the right poetry for me, who knew?

Anyway, Please Come Off-Book is a series of poems combining experiences from the world of theatre with musings on the nature of gender, sexual assault, parental non-acceptance and more. It is not an easy read, but it is a remarkable one. The poem that affected me most was I Am Sure, in which Kantor explores experience (their own?) of sexual assault and the way victims are so often not believed.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

The cover of this book is simple but eye-catching.
This book was raw, powerful, and contained so much emotion.
I found myself wanting to read more and more.


I'd definitely purchase a copy and check out other books by the author.

'I am sure that <i>man</i> and <i>woman</i> is not all a body can be.'

Wow, what is not to like about such a bawdy, intimate, tender and life-affirming collection of verse, especially when it contains such gems as ‘There are not Enough Songs about Eating Ass’. This is my introduction to Kevin Kantor (they/them), a spoken word poet, teaching artist and queer activist, among others. This is not my first introduction to Button Poetry though, which is quickly making a name for itself as the ‘go to’ publisher for speculative modern poetry.

Despite the fact that poetry is a compact, bite-size literary form that makes it ideal for our crazy pandemic world – which is showing no signs of going back to normal anytime soon; I am looking at you, second, third and even fourth wave – people remain defensive about <i>not</i> reading poetry. It is ‘too difficult’, is the usual caveat. ‘I don’t understand it’, is another favourite.

Do you understand every last word of any novel you have read? My advice is to choose a poet and collection that appeals to you, and then to just give yourself over to the experience. In the hands of a genuinely gifted artist like Kantor, it is a hugely liberating experience.

It seems kind of ‘in your face’ to structure a poetry collection about the perils and triumphs of being non-binary as a performative work. There are fragments of plays, random dialogue, citations and even an extended play on movie awards and titles. It does not sound cohesive, but it works. Kantor’s collection is organic and accretes slowly in the reader’s consciousness.

Of course, this is also a nod towards Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, who argues that gender is a social construct. Kantor engages with social theory via his lived experience, and never resorts to polemic. This makes a poem like ‘I Am Sure’, about male rape, incredibly powerful and devastating to read.

Despite the seriousness of the themes that Kantor tackles, this is also a delightfully playful, sassy and often very sexy collection: From wonderful word games such as a poem called ‘Subtext’, which is simply a text block of ‘fuck off’ with a <i>don’t go</i> slap bang in the middle, to ‘Once Upon a Time in Iowa’

So once upon a time in Iowa, a
once upon a time boy lived locked away in a high
tower – or a state school’s freshman residence hall –
occupied by trolls – or the junior varsity lacrosse team –

to the lyrical ‘Character Study: Cesario Helps Ganymede Redress in the Dark’

We are from different stories,
could only ever whisper in the wings,

& yet the men who found us, love us
share a sound that would suggest

The possibility
of something else

I really enjoyed this poetry collection. The queer reinterpretations of some of the most famous theatre works were probably my favorite part of the collection because queer and trans people deserve to be represented, in all types of stories, and deserve to see those characters get happy endings. This collection deals with a lot of heavy themes and topics, but it also celebrates the joy of being seen and accepted for yourself by those that have chosen to belong in your life.

I read this in one sitting while draped in the comfort of my comforter; the winter sir spilling into my bedroom through a crack in my window. Vanessa Carlton’s Rabbits in the Run flows out of my tv speakers while I engulf the words on the pages of this book. Did I understand all of it? No. Did I feel through all of it? Absolutely. And that’s what matters.

I don't know exactly what it is about this kind of modern poetry that draws me in—perhaps the accessibility or the relevance (or both). Either way, I loved this collection. An amalgam of inventive style and raw emotions, Please Come Off-Book is a poignant book propelled by Kantor's naked musings on their nonbinary experience and strengthened by their exacting writing. I stan!

This poetry collection is a playful mix of fairytales, myths, and Shakespeare references which collectively come together to explore themes of grief, gender, sexual assault and the film industry. Kantor effortlessly draws in characters and settings from these fictional narratives to draw comparisons between the performance of gender whilst growing up as someone who is non-binary. There are also many nods to theatre and film in the both the structure of the collection which is divided into plot points, such as Inciting Incident, as well as the poems themselves, which include forms such as Director’s Notes and Shot Lists. Having this varied structure meant that the collection was able to act as a body of work with interconnected poems on this theme of performance.

I found that the poems that were the most impactful were those that addressed the stubborn gender binaries of the Academy Awards and the film industry more broadly. There are demands for queer actors to play queer characters and critiques of the industry for almost exclusively showing trans narratives with tragic endings.

Overall the collection is a celebration of queerness and the performance of fiction by exploring the overlap between these two themes. There are poems on the author’s personal experiences of queerness that are articulated through reflections on fairytales but also direct commentary on the film and theatre industry by highlighting the considerable lack recognition for queer talent.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

This is a really strong collection of modern poetry. Many poems are touching and heartbreakingly raw and had a big impact on me.
I’d love a physical copy I could visit again and again.

I don't read poetry often but the description of Kantor's collection intrigued me. In the world of theater, one is expected to conform to the role one is given; this task becomes more challenging when you have a "non-normative" gender identity.
I read this book in one sitting and while I couldn't relate to the material, I felt the emotion. I also appreciated the formatting of the poems -- the shapes of the lines help to tell the story, I would recommend Please Come Off-Book to readers who enjoy poetry, especially members of the LGBTQ+ community. As a cis hetero white female, I can't speak to the experiences Kantor shares, but I do believe that their story is not uncommon and many more people will benefit from reading this.

I'm not sure what prompted me to pick this one up as I don't really read poetry. I suppose it's because I'm trying to branch out in my reading and I thought what better than a poetry book about gender?

I'm giving this 3 stars because it was okay. I don't have any particular feelings for it. I thought the poems were nice and I liked the way Kantor plays with formatting. But I also don't have strong feelings about it. I suspect because I haven't read poetry outside of school work. I enjoyed it despite not quite "getting it" so it speak.

I was immediately drawn into the cover and description of this poetry book, and that interest never stopped. The poetry was gorgeous always and heartbreaking almost-always. I loved how Kantor played with different styles and formats for each poem. It is clear how personal every poem is to Kantor, and I’m grateful to have been given the chance to learn more about their perspective and how they connect their gender identity to theater. There were times where I thought the poems were a little repetitive, and that is the only reason I did not give it a full five stars. Overall, I recommend this to both poetry and theatre lovers.

This is a stunning collection, probably one of my favourite modern poetry collections that I've read over the last couple of years. I'm always eager for more work by queer, nonbinary artists and this felt like exactly what I was looking to read right now. So much so that I read it in one sitting.

Despite it being in a similar wheelhouse to other collections I've read recently, it surprised me at every turn. It was a thrill to read how they used their passion for theatre as a thread throughout the collection, how they turned classic works like Shakespeare into potential queer works. I think anyone who's going to be into poetry like this will enjoy that thread.

The frankness around loss and addiction and suicidal thoughts took me aback and yet had a deep familiarity to it. Loss on all levels - whether it's death or someone no longer in your life or the rejection of family that many lgbtq people will recognise.

Overall I really enjoyed this one and there are stanzas from it that are sure to echo in my head for a while to come.

Thanks to Button Poetry for the ARC via Netgalley, it was a joy to read.

Review also on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3799062908

Wow. Just wow.

It's been a while since I found a poetry collection that I connected with on this level which, for a debut collection, really surprised me. Kevin Kantor managed to strike the perfect balance between beautiful lyrical and metaphorical writing, while remaining accessible to people who are maybe newer to poetry. I think my favourite poem of the collection was Stage Makeup Syllabus, but honestly, scrolling back through the book, so many of the poems stood out to me and none felt like filler. I will 100% be buying this collection when it is released and I heartily encourage you all to do the same, whether you tend to read poetry or not.

I absolutely adored this one. Button Poetry really hasn't missed a step yet, as far as I'm concerned, and this is another phenomenal collection. Kantor was previously unfamiliar to me but I'd love to check out more of their work after reading this.

The majority of poems here discuss gender through the lens of performance, and although that might sound trite, it isn't. Kantor's genuine love for the theatre shines through, not just as a metaphor for the performativity of gender and relationships, but for the love of the theatre itself. There's a real respect and adoration for their subject here. I will say that I found the poems which were more directly responding to plays less resonant than some of the ones which used theatre as a more distant metaphor, but that's just because I don't have the frame of reference that Kantor does; I'm not a theatre geek.

For me personally, my favourite poems here were the ones that spoke about their family and in particular the death of their brother. I shed a very small and silent tear at my desk in work a few times reading those. I just love Kantor's use of language and imagery and will absolutely be picking up a physical copy of this one.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this arc.

"I name myself
           if I call myself hers
                       it will sound like a lie" p. 40

Please Come Off-Book is a powerful and impactful piece that will cause you tears. Although it has its flaws, it was fantastic. Will definitely read it again in the future.

I am a huge fan of poetry; however, I have been really sick of modern poetry, so I was nervous to read a modern poetry book. This book, though. It took me from one emotion to another. I think it was the second poem that I was enjoying, but from that one on, the book grew on me. I even enjoyed the prose when I typically don’t like prose mixed with poetry. In this piece, I think the prose really brings the piece together with the extra explicit details in it.

I really enjoyed all of the references. I could see in those moments how people may be confused or not enjoy it because of the very obvious references. I do think at some point the modern references are too much, especially in the poem “Essential.” However, I love the "rewrites."

"The Director Gives Me Notes After Our First Run-Through" was incredibly well done. It had me screaming dangs. It was powerful and impactful. Honestly, I want to keep listing poem, but they were all so incredible.

This is a fascinating and varied collection of poems that draws a truly interesting line between theatre (the author's passion) and the daily 'performance' of gender and sexuality, families, relationships, (mental) health and sex. Images of the stage and being on show appear regularly, and contrast and interplay beautifully with ideas of identity and societal expectation.

In an especially powerful poem, 'I Am Sure', Kantor recounts their harrowing experience of sexual assault, and the fallout from it, from both the shame and discomfort felt when reporting it, but also in friends and family not knowing how to respond.

These lines in particular, about their assault, stopped me in my tracks:

it felt like every room of my home
being broken into at the same time

remember how busy you were
trying to figure out how they got in

that you forgot
about the person living there

-

Alongside more harrowing poems in this collection are some gentler, more playful ones, and the collection overall has a nice balance. Kantor's non-binary identity is explored from many angles, from a mother wondering if she can still call Kantor their "son", to trying to understand how bodies and sexual identity intersect, and even to Kantor sat at a funeral in a man's suit, angry at the idea that they cannot wear what they would want to for fear of being attacked, whilst also knowing that they would most likely be buried in a suit as it is the 'acceptable' thing to do.

This collection was a pleasant surprise, and I think it is one that deserves to be treasured and re-read.

Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I cried reading this book, seriously. Kevin Kantor makes poetry in a such a beautiful and delicated way. While you find confort in their words, it feels like a punch in the throat. Mixing dramaturgy with poetry, they make an incredible fruit salad of poems and feelings. Even thought i'm a cis woman, the poems about being lgbtq+ resonate in me, as a lesbian.

I want to read more from them! And more poem from non-binary writers too.

Please Come Off-Book is a fantastic collection of poetry filled with delicious metaphor, non-binary rage, and beautifully honest emotion. The use of stage cues, scripts, dramaturgy, and scene directions is innovative and will draw any theatre lover in.

It's refreshing to see more non-binary actors write and stand up for the queer misrepresentation in the theatre and arts.

My personal favorite poem was "Essential."