Review of The Undoing

[Joyjim]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Undoing" by Meredith Dianne O’Neal.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Emotions can be raw and deep. Transcribing deep-seated emotions require poetic skills. The Undoing by Meredith Dianne O'Neal pores over a wide range of emotions.

This book of 78 pages comprises poems of differing lengths. The themes of the poems include pain, sadness, fear, relationships, love, romance, and so on. The entire book has two sections titled Wisdom is a Woman and Lovers Lost and Found. Creative and intriguing topics were provided for some of the poems. They include "The rainy season", "Loraine's wisdom", "Alive", and so on. The wordings of the poems are creative and descriptive. They communicate the author's thoughts in flowery language. For instance, a line on page 28 reads, "Anxious thoughts manifested into stomach knots. Sadness rang its rags in my breast."

Reading this unique piece, I was drawn into the author's familiar world. The words flow smoothly in simple grammar. Pain, sadness, struggles, and fear afflict many. The book shares the key to overcoming these terrors on page 22. In a two-line poem, it explains where victory can be found. I also love the fact that some of the poems were written in the form of prose. This allows for the free flow of thought without the constraints of a regular poem.

The poems were developed with a variety of literary devices. Rhymes, consonance, metaphors, and many other features gave life to the poems. An example of this can be found on page 36, where a poem says, "What holiness is my hollowness? My nothingness is exceptional and extraordinary." There are numerous thoughtful poems in this book. Of these, my favorite is the poem on page 26 which says, "People care about what you say, but people care more about who’s speaking—Is it the voice of love or the voice of hate?"

I observed that a good number of poems in this book lacked titles. Also, there is no table of contents listing the poems. Therefore, it is difficult to navigate or locate specific poems. Some of the poems appear to lack substance because the play on words causes a loss of meaning. A part of the poem on page 43 reads, "Strength training is mundane. Threads are we, daily routine. Risen bread reads in between."

I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars due to the dislikes above. They impacted my enjoyment of the book. The text is exceptionally well edited. Lovers of emotional poems on the subjects of pain, sadness, or romance will find some of the poems intriguing.

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The Undoing
View: on Bookshelves

[Okoye Chinonso+]

Poetry: the one thing that should be close to perfection.
Saddens me that a book which seems to be of great quality is degraded due to the errors.
With appropriate corrections done, the book should be able to get a full star.
Thanks for the review.

[Okoye Chinonso+]

Reminds me of one of the poems (A Better Tomorrow) I read on this site. That book was perfection itself.
I may not know a lot when it comes to poetry, but if I see a good poem, I'll know.

[Patty Allread]

Your review was thoughtful and thorough. I admire anyone who can write poetry well. It is essential to understand what the poet is trying to say and feel the emotion expressed as a reader. It sounds like there were a few gems in this book, but not every entry was of that quality.

[Ntokozo Joy Ndlovu]

As a fan of poetry, i think I would enjoy this. Thank you for the great review. I understand how the dislikes you mention would affect the reading experience though, but again, I feel its nothing a bookmarker cannot fix

[Christopherio]

Poetry has been drawing my interest these days because of its ability to share and show emotions while still passing its message. thanks for the thorough review.