Name: Can You Sign My Tentacle?
ISBN: 9781953736048

Brandon O'Brien

Cthulhu meets hip-hop in this book of horror poems that flips the eldritch genre upside down. Lovecraftian-inspired nightmares are reversed as O'Brien asks readers to see Blackness as radically significant. Can You Sign My Tentacle? explores the monsters we know and the ones that hide behind racism, sexism, and violence, resulting in poems that are both comic and cosmic.

Poems

Can You Sign My Tentacle?

Mirto

This was an interesting concept to begin with - poetry about Lovecraft and blackness, an #OwnVoices work. It reads as poetic essays about racism, about life as a black person. I wish the connection between Lovecraft and blackness was clearer and the poetry also felt confusing at times. But it's still a very valuable piece of art that I'd recommend to anyone.

Frida Kahlo

I received an eARC copy from Interstellar Flight Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


  Lovecraft Thesis #5

.......Ever notice
how they huddle around warped symbols, 
pledge fealty to idols long since dust, 
march on wearing capsized ideas
on their heads to hide from sight?


The philosophical aspect of placing words one after the other in a specific order exists for one and one purpose only, and that is to elaborate a higher transcendental objective that aims to transmit a deeper meaning of simple communication. Furthermore, one must ensure that the precise word is placed in an unerring place to emphasize a specific momentum the message wants to highlight. 

In simple words, my expectations were not met. If this collection was supposed to be a horror novel-in-verse, it did not hit the spot; there was no connection with H. P. Lovecraft's tones whatsoever, although the reference was there. When it comes to the sci-fi explosion of motives, there were no cohesion of thoughts and no relation with the previous nor the following verse. 

Most of the poems felt like badly put-together odd words from an ancient dictionary that make no sense. The writing was confusing most of the time, the relation between words and thoughts not there, the expression overpowered with an abundance of extravagant phrases and sentences that failed in transmitting a, what I believe was, simple message. 

The blurb said that "Can You Sign My Tentacle? explores the monsters we know and the ones that hide behind racism, sexism, and violence, resulting in poems that are both comic and cosmic." None of these emotions, feelings, deep meanings and hidden messages came through; none of them screamed at my face. That is what was expected; that is what I came here for. The struggle is real when I have to reread a few verses and poems and still come through blank, without finding anything new about what I have just read. 

One great thing that caught my attention was the cover artwork. It is fascinating, inviting, intriguing; the colour palette is gorgeous. I just wish this collection considered including illustrations that would represent the words and messages the poetry bears; that would have been a perfect combination.

Can You Sign My Tentacle? Poems