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Review by Cathy Buburuz
Disturbed by Julie Shiel
24-page chapbook; digest with color cover
Published by Sam’s Dot Publishing
P.O. Box 782
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-07282
email: samsdot@samsdotpublishing.com
To order, visit http://samsdotpublishing.com/purchasecenter.htm
then click on to Illustrated Poetry Books
Although Julie Shiel is a newcomer, she’s no stranger to the horror industry. Her chilling
verse has appeared far and wide, online and in print, and it looks as though she’s
determined to etch a career in cold, everlasting stone. She admits to a morbid steak, one
that likely runs deeper than the Grand Canyon when measured against her new poetry
collection, Disturbed.
The cover art, a bloody handprint by Teri Santitoro, sets the mood for a poet who
succeeds at expressing the dementia and despair of those frail characters depicted in the
poems.
The opening poem, Rage, reads like a warning, a twisted love affair with one’s own
frenzy. It’s almost as though this verse was the methodology used by the poet to attain a
frame of mind with which to proceed with the rest of the anthology. The poem pulsates
with twisted sensibility.
With Victim #6, the author teeters on the borders of vampirism and cannibalism.
In The Scarecrow she wallows in the deadly joy of the macabre. In The Stalker Shiel
capitalizes on fear and impending doom.
Up to this point, her collection is entertaining, though it breaks little new ground. Yet,
with her poem titled Room 3A, Shiel gains momentum with a wonderful burst of word
magic that left me breathless in its expertly rendered vision of what it must be like to be
insane. The momentum continues full force throughout the remainder of the collection.
Found focuses on a female body in a liquid grave, while Release pays witness to a suicide
attempt. Release is accompanied by small, yet highly effective, illustration by Teri
Santitoro who is also known in the art world as 7ARS. It is also noteworthy that the
collection introduces Oregon artist Janis Marshall.
Modern Ophelia and Oubliette both offer glimpses into insanity, the latter an exceptional
poem you’ll want to read more than once. It boasts an incredible imagination, one that
proves that this poet is quite capable of discovering new ways to tackle old subjects.
Scarlet Letters is equally well written despite its brevity, its impact heightened with
another bloody handprint. It’s rather odd, but this type of art really does leave an
impression of a bloody print on a white wall. It tends to take your imagination to places
you don’t want to go.
Daddy’s Little Girl delves into matricide and patricide, a wicked little poem of great
intensity. It’s as though the poet wasn’t satisfied to stab the reader’s mind with a knife,
but rather insisted on giving it an angry twist upon entry.
Fallen describes a delusional encounter with an angel while The Second Coming offers a
brief look at the life of mental patient who believes he’s the messiah. Rag Doll, which is
also set in an asylum, focuses on the forlorn.
Appropriately, the collection closes with Mandala, a poem that gives the final word on
pain. This verse - specifically, its last two lines - somehow serves as an eerie tribute to
the talented lady who penned these mesmerizing poems.
Highly recommended.
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