What lives in dark woods
What emerges from depths
What creeps within alleyways.

PLOT SUMMARY:

Cynthia Pelayo sings a song for the least of us, the victim we want to forget as soon as possible, the one who disappeared before ever really appearing. With a fairy tale gaze and a heart bigger than the world, her siren song insinuates itself past our defenses, past the hardened calluses and apathy we’ve erected to protect ourselves from the everyday horror of another missing girl.

Pelayo relates the familiar story, poem by poem; a body is found, a brutal crime investigated, clues take us in circles, and lead us nowhere. We are on an epic journey, the hero’s journey, and it must play out to the end in all its painful, ticking moments. Pelayo imbues her hero, Agent K, with the entirety of our dedication and that crumb of hope we’ve been hiding, saving for later. We will need to save for years, for decades, if we want to come out the other side. The job takes its toll, the answers are never complete and whys fracture, crack and spread. Still there is no turning away. We must bear witness, though it changes and contorts us.

GRADE: A+

REVIEW:

This poetry collection recently won the Bram Stoker for best poetry collection of 2022 and with good reason. But this isn’t your typical collection, as it reads more like an epic poem in the way one would read Homer’s classics like The Illiad or Gilgamesh. This collection opens with a horrific discovery of a body, and soon Agent K is tasked with trying to find the killer of the victim, and it’s a race against time. Each poem is titled as police report numbers, which packs a punch as a reminder that this isn’t just a story, this is real life. As we learn more about Agent K, we know that she had her own tragedy that sparked her reasoning to become a detective. Pelayo paints such detailed, dark imagery that stays with you long after you’ve reached the end. This is an excellent, heartbreaking tale, that sadly feels very close to many of the true crime stories we see time and time again, adding to the tragedy of how no matter how many victims there are, there never seems to be an end to this kind of story.

I absolutely recommend this if you love horror, true crime, and lyrical poetry with dark imagery.

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