She Used to Be on a Milk Carton – Kailey Tedesco

Illustrations – Whitney Proper

You know that book that makes you feel like your brain has liquefied and is slowly draining from your ears with every page you read and by the end you are fairly certain that you qualify for the Dumbest Person on the Planet award? I just finished it.

Do you want to know what this book of poetry is about? Me too! I don’t know why She Used to Be on a Milk Carton. Maybe she was lost, just like I was while I carefully read each poem trying to extract its meaning. I know what the blurb said and I know I was really interested in reading these poems.

There were a couple of poems where it’s possible I may have cottoned on to the central theme but I’m afraid I needed someone to dumb it down for me. There was a girl in my English class who would write poems that she read to the class frequently. I never understood those either but my teacher practically fell over herself declaring their literary masterpiece worthiness.

I assume these poems were very well written and that people much smarter than myself will rave about how full of deep and meaningful ideas they were. I’m certain that English teacher could wax lyrical about every poem in this book. If you read these poems after checking out someone else’s review (preferably someone who can actually provide valuable feedback about this book) I really hope you love it.

Personally I’m going to go find a sponge to mop up as much of my brain as possible and hope I can find a way to reverse the liquefaction process.

Thank you to NetGalley and April Gloaming Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Between body and spirit, place and soul, love and trauma, and logic and magic, Kailey Tedesco finds herself between two worlds in this stunning collection of debut poetry. Treading the line between the dual nature of our human spirit, this collection brings to light what our physical, and then spiritual, selves’ place is in the cosmos and the realm beyond our immediate sight.

Through images of Catholicism, heavenly bodies, caul births, dark magic, serpents, and God, Tedesco challenges what it means to be Woman in a world so clouded by opposing truths, illuminating herself and elevating our human experience.