I really disliked the subject matter of the majority of this book, but I can appreciate his attention to rhythm, rhyme, and craft. Robbins does twist language, especially idioms, in surprising ways. This just was really difficult to push through for me. ( )

a few brilliant lines & a few real, insightful ideas, liked the disjointedness, liked the mix of the popular & the literary and even the subtle twists on the famous poetic lines, but by the end the book was just too much repetition of the same thing

Alien vs. Predator by Michael Robbins is a mixture of techno beats, pop culture references, and references to some of the greatest poets, including Robert Frost. While many readers of poetry would find his flagrant use of lines from songs cheap or as a short-cut, Robbins seems to be saying something more with the lines he chooses. He wants to comment on the superficiality of society; he wants to rip open the thin veil of complacency that we all hide behind to reveal the stark, dark, and painful reality beneath.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2013/01/alien-vs-predator-by-michael-robbins.html ( )

Very few of the poems stood out as poems that I'd wish to come back to, poems that demanded immediate re-reading, or even poems that I'd want to pass on to other readers. Reading, I felt that many of them were written with an eye toward one/two-liner greatness, rather than an eye toward meaning or cohesion. Similarly, I felt that the author held too much back for any of the poems to hold a real meaning for the reader, or at least a real meaning that could be similar to what the writer might have intended. ( )

The Short of It:

Sharp, edgy and bold.

The Rest of It:

I am not a regular reader of poetry. I read poetry in college and every now and then, I’ll come across a poem that speaks to me, but once again, just to be clear… I am not a reader of poetry. I often don’t know how to read them out loud, or on paper so what I look for, is something different from what I experience on a daily basis. I want to be disturbed (yes) a little bit and forced to think. I want to be shocked, but not put off and there is a fine line between shocking and disgusting when it comes to poetry.

When I first read Alien vs. Predator, I felt assaulted and vaguely dirty. As if I had been taken advantage of and tossed to the curb. I wasn’t sure what to think! I put it aside for a little while. That’s when I noticed that my mind kept going back to it, whether I wanted it to or not. The visceral reaction that I’d first had, morphed into a vague curiosity and of course, that led me to pick it up again. Why, you ask?

I have a soft-spot for references to pop-culture and this collection is chock full of them. Kool-Aid, Amber Alerts, Care Bears, Michael J. Fox, Soylent Green (my personal fave) and the list goes on. The poems themselves are almost written in a stream of consciousness style which makes it impossible to predict which direction he’ll take. Sometimes they are dark and once in a while, they are funny. Although, I do have to admit that most of them seem a bit angry to me. Not violent, just angry, pissed-off at the world in some way but then right when they begin to get too dark, he throws in something to surprise you, like calling himself an asshole. I chuckled over that one.

This collection may not be for everyone. It’s certainly not for the reader who is looking for poems about beautiful gardens, paths not taken and white, puffy clouds of happiness but there is something here for a reader who is looking for more. More substance, more food for thought.

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