Child of the Moon by Jessica Semaan

Child of the Moon will be published on January 8, 2019!

Child of the Moon by Jessica Semaan

3.75 stars

“You are not a victim. You are closer to God in your pain.

              For your pain is the source of your creation. And creation

              is divine. Your pain is the source of healing yourself and

              others. And healing is divine.”

Poetry is hard to review. It’s personal, introspective, and often times it’s more for the writer than the reader. It’s cathartic and meant to be freeing. Child of the Moon is a process that seems to show that. The beginning is very bitter and angry. I could feel the resentment at the trauma Semaan faced and I was put-off. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling this poetry book because of its bitterness. Then, I kept going and I connected more, especially in the last section—Flower Moon. I believe this is because I am more in the same healing process of the Flower Moon than of the opening—Blood Moon. I had once been bitter and enraged, but now when I think of that person I once was because of the trauma I experienced I want to weep (and shout praise to God for healing me past that brokenness). I am happy I read this because I am big believer in talking about trauma. I believe that the trauma we experience makes us who we truly are down to our core. Vulnerability is so important and I find that we live in a society where everyone wants to be vulnerable, but not actually go past the trauma. Meaning we share our trauma, but not the process of healing. The trauma is ugly enough to compare like our latest Instagram selfies, but God forbid, we compare the ugliest thing we as humans experience—healing. Healing is ugly, but even more beautiful. Because you can’t get to beauty until you’ve faced ugly. Semaan does that with her poetry collection and I respect her for that. I needed a day to ruminate and think about this collection and I like it more and more the further I get away from my first impression. Also, the art in here is colorful and so great. 

The problem I have with this collection is the simplicity of the poems. My biggest complain is that the vast majority of the poems are lists. I love lists, but I don’t think it always works in poetry format. Your list could be the realest and truest thing out there (Healing #1 & Healing #2), but that doesn’t make it a poem. It makes it a powerful image that will be pinned on Pinterest. She also has a tendency to write a lot of two-lined poems. It’s all very tumblr and quick. I’m not opposed to this form of expression, but it isn’t really a poem, more of a reflection of a conceptual idea. The only poem I liked that did this style was “Faith”.

 

Poems I Recommend:

Despair

When you can’t love yourself

When your home is a faraway land (my favorite)

Sitting with the child of the moon

What they called you

You are not a victim

Alone by the creek

  

“It’s never too late to bloom.”

Whimsical Writing Scale: 3

Art Scale: 5

Plotastic Scale: 3.25

Cover Thoughts: I like the cover a lot, but I’d love it so much more if some of the striking art that’s inside was exhibit on it.

Thank you, Netgalley and Andrews McNeel Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.  

Are you excited to read Child of the Moon? What poetry books do you recommend? Let me know down below in the comments!