Pandemic Poetry Mixed with Horror Echoes the Terror and Rage We All Once Felt: A Shadow of Your Former Self is a hybrid collection of poems and stories harkening to a dark time and creating fictional new ones

 

A Shadow of Your Former Self

Amy Grech

Alien Buddha Press, 2023

ISBN: 9798395815644

Ebook, 51 pages

Buy links:

Amazon

CrimsonScreams

 

 

When I started reading the new hybrid collection of poetry and short stories, A Shadow of Your Former Self by Amy Grech, I did not know what to expect. What I ended up reading was poetry and flash fiction stories that swept me away and kept me turning the pages!

 

The poems took me back to the days of lockdown, right when COVID-19 changed everything. There were so many things in these poems I could relate to because a lot of us were experiencing the same feelings: Frustration over having to shelter in place, wondering if life will ever be the same again, and feeling grateful that at least we were in a home with good people in it to experience the craziness of this pandemic.

 

However, not all of the poems and stories in this book were about such things, something I was grateful for! The speculative stories and poems offered a nice break from revisiting those dreadful days of COVID-19. The way these poems and stories are written kept me hooked, and I found it difficult to stop reading!

 

I loved how Grech brought her stories full circle in the end and just seemed to weave it all together. Though I couldn’t really get into the post-apocalyptic story, I did enjoy reading the other ones. "Ashes to Ashes" was such a bone-chilling story! At first, it seems like a story about grief, with the widow questioning whether or not she could recall details about her life with her late husband correctly, but then it turns into something else at the end! Something I definitely didn't see coming! The story "Torn Asunder" was another one I really liked too.

 

A Shadow of Your Former Self shares glimpses of a former self we all once had, but how, because of a pandemic, we have all “emerged” as shadows. As something other than who we used to be, although glimpses of our old selves may linger in the eyes of others, just as a trick of the light can have us thinking that we see something that isn’t really there.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.