{"id":8471,"date":"2021-03-19T20:14:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T00:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8471"},"modified":"2021-03-19T20:15:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T00:15:45","slug":"book-review-a-complex-accident-of-life-by-jessica-mchugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-a-complex-accident-of-life-by-jessica-mchugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

A Complex Accident of Life <\/em>by Jessica McHugh<\/p>\n

Apokrupha, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 979-8647146519<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0(\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The ghost of Mary Shelley haunts the pages of A Complex Accident of Life <\/em>by Jessica McHugh. With words insightfully culled from Frankenstein, <\/em>the blackout poetry in this brilliant jewel of a book captures the tragic intensity, dark fervor, and dramatic suffering of Shelley\u2019s life as well as something totally new, inspired, and relatable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through startling images of struggle and determination, this collection also reveals the essence of Shelley\u2019s creative imagination as a writer and her mind and heart as a woman. McHugh tells us, \u201cShe felt hope like a moon: \/ A bright heart nothing could extinguish. \/ She embraced its bounty \/ And settled passion upon purpose.\u201d Shelley\u2019s words, like gold deposited decades ago in the novel\u2019s text, are mined and skillfully transformed into a contemporary memoir by the talented McHugh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On each page of the book, the reader will find an entire printed poem and then, below it, a copy of the blacked out (in color) page from Frankenstein<\/em> from which the poem was taken. The pages from Frankenstein <\/em>are in numerical order, which is astonishing when you realize that the poems do not reflect a narrative that parallels that of the novel, and yet one poem smoothly flows into the next encouraging a slow, thoughtful reading.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McHugh has carefully shaped each eloquent verse to stand alone, a sort of reflective snapshot in time. There is something so tender and wounded about these poems; they sometimes seem like private thoughts that should not have been divulged: honest, raw, and deeply felt. McHugh draws us into that place where those thoughts and feelings are simultaneously hers and Shelley\u2019s, and together, they become an expression of universal truths.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jessica McHugh has truly lifted blackout poetry to an entirely new level of remarkable craftsmanship. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Nova Hadley<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor’s note:\u00a0A Complex Accident of Life\u00a0<\/strong>is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Poetry.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh Apokrupha, 2020 ISBN-13: 979-8647146519 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0(\u00a0Amazon.com )   The ghost of Mary Shelley haunts the pages of A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh. With words insightfully culled from Frankenstein, the blackout poetry in this brilliant jewel of a book captures the tragic intensity,<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4825,2474,357,2092,600,4811,4826,328],"class_list":["post-8471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-complex-accident-of-life","tag-book-review","tag-bram-stoker-awards","tag-dark-poetry","tag-frankenstein","tag-illustrated-books","tag-jessica-mchugh","tag-mary-shelley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8471"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8482,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8471\/revisions\/8482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}