Scarlet Shadows by Scylla Grand

Book Description

Scarlet Shadows is a chapbook of meticulously polished poetry describing a journey: from ignorance and pain to insight and hope. The poems use a combination of rhyme, meter, alliteration, assonance, and other literary techniques.

My Review

This short poetry collection is worth a read if you are interested in a slightly dark tone. The majority of the poems contained expressions of anguish, equal parts hopeless and beseeching. Not all the poems have a lyrical quality, but many do.

My favorite poem of the collection is one called ‘Beast,’ and now I just adore the phrase “mirth’s brilliant gloss.” Still, my favorite line is actually the first one in a poem called ‘Betrayal Is.’

“Betrayal is a fruitless seed,
that cannot grow and may not leave.”

Two other moments stuck out specifically. The last stanza in ‘Sirens:’

“To hear them [Sirens] is to rest in peace.
Like will-o-wisps, they light the way,
a beacon far beyond the sea.”

And the first stanza of ‘Webs and Blooms:’

“From the corners spiders crept,
slinking, small, and leaking lead,
stretched across and overhead.
The more I lost, the more they fed.”

Overall, Scarlet Shadows is a very competent collection that reaches across through the dark of a shadow-self plagued with misery and doubt, into other spaces of strength and confidence with enough hope to leave you wanting to read more.

Book Details

Title: Scarlet Shadows
Author: Scylla Grand
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Published: September 19th, 2019
ISBN: 9781734042900
Where: If you’d like to find out where the book is sold, please check Goodreads.

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