Starting into this book makes it much less sexy then the first book. I can’t say I love the intense sexy side, but I know the target demographic does, and I am a little surprised to found he walked away from his one solid trick. There are much fewer short stories written in this book as well. What is left are short poems that feel very thick with platitudes and Instagram shareable snippets. His poem Love near the beginning of the book sums up a lot of his book nicely:
“Love
Love is double-edged sword that conquers hearts but can also cut the hand that wields it
-Michael Faudet”
So it is a lot less like poetry, and a lot more like trying to be clever things written under Instagram captions. There are some poems and short stories in the book, but it felt like fewer, and those that remain use less poetic inventions and are more free form. He touched on cultural relics again- “Amy Winehouse’s Rehab”. This book also references drinking vodka much more often than previous books- I remember more wine.
I’m not trying to say the feeling from the first two books are completely gone- they are definitely in here. Michael Faudet’s books work easily as a gift chain to a lover, given from year to year as an easy predictable routine to the type who enjoys this style. This one just feels like less. In both style and in size, being about 50 pages shorter than his first book. I would say also, they work as a neat reminder to those who have love interests- and you can easily use the poems to text them and have something to talk about.
Also, while there are fewer short stories, the ones that are here seem like his longest. If you enjoyed his style of short stories you might enjoy these.
