Review of Sunset in Toronto

[Eunice Geres]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Sunset in Toronto" by Victoria West.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Sunset in Toronto by Victoria West is a collection of poems about love, grief, passion, and life, divided into three sections, namely: Feelings, Experiences, and Places. Readers would be able to peek into the author’s way of seeing things and her exuberant life. Most poems are accompanied by beautifully taken photographs, which bring even more essence and meaning to each poem it represents.

The author's free-verse poetic style gave way to a steady flow of lines and stanzas weaved with emotions that the author wants to get across to her readers. While the author didn’t mostly use flowery words and metaphorical symbolizations, West used the strength of realistic imagery to fully give the readers’ imagination a good feel of her thoughts.

I genuinely enjoyed reading this book. This collection evokes a serene feeling like when you're watching a sunset. The structure of the book is also commendable. The poems under one section stick to the overall theme of their chapter. Like in feelings, every poem evokes different emotions that the author wants to convey. I also loved how the author used fictional poems, not just realistic ones, to achieve the theme of the specific chapter.

Even though I genuinely enjoyed reading this gem of a collection, there are a few poems where I was just confused by what the author wanted to describe. I’ve always been bad at analyzing a poem, so maybe that is one of the reasons why I was confused. Other than that, I would say many people would find this easy to read and a real page-turner.

I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I am so happy to read this book because it showed me how personal a collection of poems could be. It honestly seems like I got to know the author personally. It's fascinating to see another person's quirks and how they convey their feelings through a few words in a poem. Even though the whole collection is free-verse and only uses a few literary devices, I still find it enjoyable because the writing is on point to the theme it wants to evoke. I also only saw one typographical mistake.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading a collection of poetry. People who also want to start reading poetry may like this because it's easy to understand. It's free-verse and realistic, which are probably the most straightforward poems to read. Additionally, I think people who enjoy photography would want to check this out because the author accompanied most of the poems with beautiful photographs. I would also note that there's a poem written in French. So, people who want to learn French and people who can actually understand the language would probably appreciate that.

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Sunset in Toronto
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[Zwelihle_Myeni]

Thanks for such a great recommendation. I'm not a fan of poetry, but since it's realistic and easy to understand I might find myself reading it. I also like that there is diversity in this book.

[Nino Chinonso Onwurah]

Love, grief, and passion are very common emotions. These poems will be relatable. Nice review.

[Dhabmonnies]

I had also got an enthusiastic feeling for this book. The main reason be it the exuberant feeling Victoria West is trying to tell us through the poem of her vision to the understand of life in the suspense quote with the love, grief, passion, and life. Which she further explains it how related to life the book is about.

[Blessing E]

Relatable poems are here. Superbly written review that explored the core concepts of the novel. I know know whether to read this book or not. Well done on a good review

[Peace10]

The concept of the book is relatable, which will make it easier to read for poetry lovers.