Review of sour cream and vinegar

[Nzube Chizoba Okeke]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "sour cream and vinegar" by the deplorable poet.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The book sour cream and vinegar is a collection of 46 poems that shares the author's view on various areas of life. Ranging from political and societal issues to his thoughts concerning personal matters, it presents a realistic view of life.

Poetry can be seen as a portal through which we view a poet's soul, and sour cream and vinegar seems to be such a portal, as it gives us a view into the deplorable poet's soul. It shares his musings and opinions about certain things in life. It is both entertaining and informative.

I consider sour cream and vinegar a great work of poetry from my knowledge of poetry. This is because most of the poems in the book are realistic and easy to understand, as they relate to certain things in our everyday life. One turn-off I have about some poems is that they are often difficult to understand even when read severally. But with sour cream and vinegar, the case is different, except for a couple of poems, like "The Devil's Advocate" and "Red-eye Cauldron," which are a tad difficult to understand.

Some of the poems felt like the author was penning down my thoughts, which made reading easier. The poem that resonated with me was "Grief." It might be a coincidence, but honestly, every emotion the author penned down in that poem were ones I've previously felt and still feel, having lost some loved ones. What the author wrote in the introduction about hoping the poetry touches the reader somehow came as a reality in my case, as most of the poems touched me on an emotional level.

However, while reading, I encountered a problem with the book that made reading challenging for me. This issue stemmed from the author's writing style. I noticed that he wrote most of the poems so that most lines in a stanza contained just a single word before moving to the next line, which also contained a single word. Having to piece each word line by line to form a sentence made reading challenging for me, as it took me more time to understand the sentence than it would with each sentence in a line. It also seemed like the author was using single-word lines to fill up the book's pages.

Another issue I had with the book, though minor, was an abbreviation used in the book. The acronym "IDK" was used by the author in the book without being explained. IDK can mean several things to different readers, and the meaning which the author intended might be lost.

Besides the issues I noted in the previous paragraphs, I had no other problem with the book. There were only a few errors. Therefore, I would give it a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend it to lovers of poetry, as they would find the book enjoyable.

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sour cream and vinegar
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[Black Jewel]

The one word per line would drive me insane. Though I'm certain that this book is a great read, I will have to take a pass on it. Thanks for the review.

[Edria Dayyinah]

I hate poems that are used to just fill in space. It kind of looks a bit lazy to me. But this is a great review!

[the_ashfeathers]

The word per line thing leave me almost pulling my hair out. Poetry is not something you read left and right, you need to understand it, and a thing such as writing style being a hindrance is just too annoying.