Rue

Rue - Melissa Bull

Some poetry collections you can't put down because the content is just so good that the desire to see what the next poem does is overwhelming. With "Rue", its not only that kind of reaction, but it's also the inability and unwillingness to break out of the addictive, fast-paced rhythm of the work.

Bull tells a story about a city without following the typical conventions, and without making it feel like a typical, and rather lengthy, story that one has to stay awake and listen to out of necessity. The poems make it easy to stay awake, like an injection of caffeine that then sets you off on a journey not only geographically but also through the life of a speaker who frequently comes very close to confusing the reader on where the poet's identity begins and ends in the speaker's voice. The poems are personal and alluring, heavily melancholic without being melodramatic about it. Instead they're witty and capable of retaining the attention, darting around corners in a chase that is like chasing after the book equivalent of the white rabbit.