Girls Like Us is packed with fierce, eloquent, and deeply intelligent poetry focused on female identity and the contradictory personas women are expected to embody. The women in these poems sometimes fear and sometimes knowingly provoke the male gaze. At times, they try to reconcile themselves to the violence that such attentions may bring; at others, they actively defy it. Hazen's insights into the conflict between desire and wholeness, between self and self-destruction, are harrowing and wise. The predicaments confronted in Girls Like Us are age-old and universal-but in our current era, Hazen's work has a particular weight, power, and value.
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[Rhyme relies on repetition: pink drink / big wig, tramp stamp, rank skank. Alliteration DEVICES]***
(@alansquirepub, 1 March 2020, 72 pages, ebook, #ARC from @PoeticBookTours and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 26 May via @PoeticBookTours)
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I'd never heard of the poet before. I decided to take part in the tour because I loved the cover of the book and it sounded like a poetry collection I could enjoy. I enjoyed every poem in this collection. This collection explores a variety of women's issues such as identity, relationships and desire but does this from a very personal stand-point. What I liked is how different the poems are and how widely the subject matter is exolored. Hazen explores universal themes in a very personal way while still speaking at a universal level. Every poems resonated with me. Some poems would tackle the themes explored hers in oscure ways. Hazen forces them into a recognisable form. The best poems are Game Rules, Tips from a Nudel Model, Diagnosis I, II and III and The Clock.