Review - The Gorelets Omnibus by Michael Arnzen @MikeArnzen

The Gorelets Omnibus by Michael Arnzen gorelets.com

The author offers this synopsis of the book:

The Gorelets Omnibus collects all the bloody little bits of Michael Arnzen's poetry written in the past 10 years into one big volume. From the contents of the original Gorelets chapbook and his classic "refrigerator of the damned" online magnetic poetry experiment, to Arnzen's latest flash fiction and brand new Zombie Haikruel series, this collection chronicles his revolutionary vision for the horror short form. He even received a Bram Stoker Award for Alternative Forms for some of the work included in this book.

As one of the first writers to recognize the creative capacity of handheld devices, Arnzen's pioneering work to deliver gory entertainment in as few characters as possible is still eminently relevant today. Thus, a "casebook of criticism"-a collection of scholarly analyses of Arnzen's unique approach to the genre-is included alongside the poetry.

This is most definitely an experiment in poetry. These poems were specifically designed to me read on a PDA screen and now brought into the modern age and available for the Kindle and Kindle apps. Each one poem was purposefully constructed to fit in the screen. Every word is important. All that being said, these are horror poems that will repulse and horrify. Some of Arnzen work is down right hopeless. There are no happy endings here. There's no room. Every poem jumps you right into the muck, the guts and the gore.

The book also includes micro poems that were published on Twitter from 2009 to 2011. These are very interesting. It's great to see an artist overcome a 140 character limit. Included are a few examples of flash fiction. These are great examples of Arnzen's ability to tell a story in short form.

Also included are essays of criticism on the Gorelet experiment. These are great examples of insight on what others think of Arnzen's poetry.

If you are not a fan of Arnzen, this is a wonderful introduction and for those fans of Arnzen's writings, this is a must have.    

And feel free to share this post via your social network of choice. Let's help these authors get the word out to other readers.