Wet Silence by Sweta Srivastava Vikram | Review

Series: World Voices

Published: July 1st, 2015

Pages: 56

Date Finished: September 4th, 2015

Rating: 5/5 stars

Age Recommendation: 16+

I received Wet Silence by Sweta Srivastava Vikram in exchange for an honest review and I was really excited to read it. I haven't read much poetry before and when I got to the final page of this book I was blown away.

Wet Silence is a collection of beautifully crafted poetry based on the true stories and interviews of  Hindu widows in India and how society treats them as well as how they feel after the deaths of their husbands. Each poem was seamlessly written and I was left with a new perspective after each one.

Some of the things depicted in this book had me in shock. I had no idea this type of thing happened in the world and I my heart truly goes out to anyone who has been affected by events like these. The poetry was raw and real and stunning and I couldn't have asked for a more fabulous book to review. It really opened my eyes and made me be grateful for all of the good things in my life.

I highly advise everybody to give it a read if they are looking for something full of amazing strength and courage and something that will make you extremely thankful.

If you have a moment please take a look at this wonderful video of Sweta doing a reading of Wet Silence in Queens. It would be greatly appreciated.

About the Poet

Sweta Srivastava Vikram, featured by Asian Fusion as "One of the most influential Asians of our time," is an award-winning writer, three times Pushcart Prize nominee, Amazon bestselling author of nine books, novelist, poet, essayist, and columnist, who currently lives in New York City with her husband. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, literary journals, and online publications across nine countries in three continents. A graduate of Columbia University, Sweta reads her work, teaches creative writing workshops, and gives talks at universities and schools across the globe.

Roses Are Red... Violet Is Dead by Monica-Marie Vincent | Review

Series: Blood So Violet (Book 1)

Published: March 13th, 2015 by Booktrope Publishing

Pages: 214

Date Finished: July 10th, 2015

Rating: 3/5

Age Recommendation: 12+

Roses Are Red... Violet is Dead by Monica-Marie Vincent is a book about murder and thrilling events that are supposed to keep you engaged and right at the edge of your seat and that's what I was expecting going into this book. It seemed so promising but I was extremely let down and I was surprised when I saw the great ratings it had gotten on Goodreads because I felt like me and everyone else weren't reading the same book. Surely if everyone thinks it's amazing and I don't there must be something wrong with me... This book was a major let-down.

Roses Are Red... Violet Is Dead follows seventeen year old Violet Sumner as she goes about her life trying to be the grown up in the household. After her dad passed away in a terrible accident and her mom is left on disability and turning to alcohol as a coping mechanism, Violet is left to pick up the pieces as well as take care of her mother. One day Violet gets a strange text from a number she's never seen before. This text is the first to come of many. They are made up of the famous Roses Are Red poems except they say things like "Your best friend needs to mind her own business," but in poem form. Violet doesn't think much of it and just brushes it off until weird things start happening in the community such as people dying or going missing. For me though, I had a lot of problems with this book...

The main character is Native American and although I am not Native American myself, I was very offended at how the author stereotyped Native American people. She wrote Violet's mother as a drunk and constantly made offensive references to that culture. Another thing that annoyed me was the use of super excessive swearing. I'm not one of those people who can't handle swearing at all; honestly I don't mind it one bit but with that being said there was way too much of it in this book. There was a swear word on literally almost every page. In my opinion, the author used swearing as a way to cover up for a poorly written book. This book also had horrible teenage dialogue. Monica-Marie creates words and phrases that I've never heard of in my life. One example would be "Are you seriousing me right now?" Nobody says that that I know of and all those made-up words and phrases or things that nobody I know would say really annoyed me.

Even though the writing style wasn't that great at certain points, the story did keep me mildly entertained so I might want to continue the series when the next book comes out if given the chance but this book was just mediocre for me and because of that it gets 3/5 stars.