Book Review | The Apocalyptic Mannequin by Stephanie M. Wytovich

The Apocalyptic Mannequin is a horror poetry collection by Stephanie M. Wytovich.

Doomsday is here and the earth is suffering with each breath she takes. Whether it's from the nuclear meltdown, the wrath of the Four Horsemen, a war with technology, or a consequence of our relationship with the planet, humanity is left buried and hiding, our bones exposed, our hearts beating somewhere in our freshly slit throats.

The Apocalyptic Mannequin by Stephanie M. Wytovich is a collection that strips away civilization and throws readers into the lives of its survivors. The poems inside are undelivered letters, tear-soaked whispers, and unanswered prayers. They are every worry you've had when your electricity went out, and every pit that grew in your stomach watching the news at night. They are tragedy and trauma, but they are also grief and fear, fear of who--or what--lives inside us once everything is taken away.

These pages hold the teeth of monsters against the faded photographs of family and friends, and here, Wytovich is both plague doctor and midwife, both judge and jury, forever searching through severed limbs and exposed wires as she straddles the line evaluating what's moral versus what's necessary to survive.

What's clear though, is that the world is burning and we don't remember who we are.

So tell me: who will you become when it's over?

If you've been following my updates for a while, you know I enjoy reading poetry. I especially love reading horror poetry so I was really excited to check out Stephanie Wytovich's latest collection The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Several of the Ladies of Horror Fiction team members had already read and loved it so I had high expectations going into it.

Wow, was this collection timely! I have no idea why I wasn't expecting a book called "The Apocalyptic Mannequin" to be so apocalyptic. It hit me hard in the pandemic feels! I'm pretty sure I've been avoiding the topic of outbreaks and plagues in my entertainment so I'm glad I didn't realize what I was getting myself into when I picked it up. It turned out to be perfect timing, and I loved it!

At roughly 100 poems, there are a lot of flavors of the apocalypse to be had, and they are all terrifying.

One of the most important things I look for in poetry is being able to understand it in a way that I can relate to. I've read a lot of poetry that has left me scratching my head, but Wytovich's poetry is very accessible. There is a reason Stephanie Wytovich is so well loved in the horror community. Her writing is beautiful and it's brutal.

If you are looking for a recommendation on where to start reading poetry or are simply looking for another great collection to pick up, The Apocalyptic Mannequin is on my recommendations list. It's a travesty that I've put off reading Wytovich's poetry collections until now. Since finishing The Apocalyptic Mannequin, I've added four more of her collections to my shelf. I plan to lose myself in each of them over the next few months so stay tuned for my thoughts on those as well.

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5/5 Stars

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Poetry Recommendations | Poetry Magazine and Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch

Poetry Magazine July/August 2019

I recently subscribed to Poetry Magazine. Eleven times a year I will receive a book sized collection of poetry.

The current volume (July/August) showcases Global Indian English poetry, and I absolutely loved it. The voices and the themes were so varied, and they were amazing.

"The poets included herein represent neither cohesion nor diversity, in fact there is nothing represented in these pages except exemplary poems from people with complicated relationships to the words global, Indian, and English either in combination or separately."

I'm looking forward to reading many more volumes of Poetry Magazine in the future.

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Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch

Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch is an invocation, an ancient invitation that summons the darkness within and channels those lonely spirits looking for a host. It's a collection that lives in the realm of ghosts and family curses, witchcraft and urban legends, and if you're brave enough to peek behind the veil, the hauntings that permeate these pages will break seals and open doorways, cut throats and shatter mirrors.

You see, these poems are small drownings, all those subtle suffocations that live in that place between our ribs that swells with panic, incubates fear. Lynch shows her readers that sometimes our shadow selves--our secrets--are our sharpest weapons, the knives that rip through flesh, suture pacts with demons, cut deals with entities looking for more than a homecoming, something better, more intimate than family.

It's about the masks we wear and the reflections we choose not to look at, and what's most terrifying about the spells is these incantations show that we are the possessed, that we are our greatest monster, and if we look out of the corner of our eyes, sometimes--if we've damned ourselves enough--we can catch a glimpse of our own burnings, what monstrosities and mockeries we're to become.

So cross yourselves and say your prayers. Because in this world, you are the witch and the hunter, the girl and the wolf.

If you've been on the fence at all about trying horror poetry, Choking Back the Devil is a great place to start.

This was my first time to read Donna Lynch, and it definitely won't be my last. I loved the poems in this collection, and I highly recommend Choking Back the Devil as a collection to try.

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