Written in the aftermath of a terminated engagement and on the precipice of Frances' early twenties, 'in pursuit of kinder muses' captures the essence of where we come from, what we are, and what inspires us to grow. Spoken through the perspective of four of the nine Ancient Greek muses comes a story of personal growth and revelation on being mindful of what you allow to fuel your creativity. There is beauty in the aftermath of hardship, discovered in tending to softer mediums, where we also so often find ourselves.
My Review:
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Firstly, I'd like to thank the author, Vanessa Frances, from gifting me a copy of her book for an honest review!
Of course we have to talk about the cover because o.m.g it's beautiful! A big shout out to Emily Kucala for designing it! I love seeing Indie Authors striving for more and having the same quality as trad published authors. Also it has such a unique title! Like a lot of us can agree that we could use a kinder muse! Each poem has a title which I love to see and Frances uses such vivid concrete imagery. It is split into four chapters spoken through the perspective of four of the nine Ancient Greek muses and I have two favourites! First is 'the mask of Melpomene' which has a theme based on theatre which I loved because it reminds me of my very talented sister. And second is 'garden of erato' which has a theme surrounding nature which I love! We all need to be a little more in touch with nature. My favourite piece from this collection is 'set design'. It has such a beautiful rhythm, whether read aloud or in your head.
Even though the cover is very professional, the inside of the book isn't formatted in a traditional way. There is no dedication, no acknowledgements, no information about the author, no previous works listed for us to check out her backlist etc. I feel like if self publishing authors have to be able to compete with larger authors they need to hit a certain standard and include things like I listed above because it's what the reader comes to expect. Another negative for me is kind of a pet peeve. Every line in every piece of poetry has a capital letter... In poetry punctuation like capital letters are used for impact of meaning and this just felt like it wasn't edited or something. Adding to this point, there are way too many commas in this book. Commas, again should be used sparingly.
Overall, I did enjoy Frances collections and enjoyed how this collection captures the essence of where we come from, what we are, and what inspires us to grow. It explores our creativity through growth and mindfulness, finding the light after the hardship has passed. A poetry collection I'd recommend.