This is a journey on becoming what you hate, reflecting how you got there, and how to get back from it, if you can.
Penance of the Byronic Hero
by Paula Macena
Genre: Narrative Poetry
Penance of the Byronic Hero is a narrative poetry collection that highlights emotional trauma in religious upbringings, specifically within marginalized communities, and how it reflects on personal relationships. Separated into four different acts, it recounts heavy topics in their rawest form, including mental illness and domestic violence, and the perspective of one who is toiling through these things and attempting to find a way out.
Penance of the Byronic Hero is full of heartache and beauty. Both the wonders and pains that come with the act of living. -Goodreads review
I was slightly skeptical of this book as I don’t tend to enjoy poetry collections. I find them to be disjointed, overelaborate, and somehow still flat and distant. Paula’s book was none of those things. The writing were clear reflections of a series of experiences and ideas. Acute relatability yet still unique expressions existed on every page. -Goodreads review
Paula Macena is, above all, a writer. Aside from being published in Jr High the Magazine, Culturally Arts Collective, and Prometheus Unbound, her most recent poetry collection, Penance of the Byronic Hero was released in June 2023. In her pursuit of shedding light on marginalized writers, she hosts local writers’ events throughout Southern California. When she isn’t writing, you can find her making too much coffee, watching The Vampire Diaries, and staring lovingly at her cats.
This sounds like a great book of poetry.
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