Puritan U by Kristin Garth

Puritan U Reviews

• 
  Miss December

  Another fantastic work by Kristin Garth. The footnotes added to the context of her sonnets, which was a great feature for this book. Outstanding.
• 
  D.A. Gray

  It's not often I come across a book that tears at you on an emotional level and wows you on a craft level. This is what is meant when we say the story of the one being much more true than the 'official accounts' that gloss over the wreckage left by exploitation and abuse - the kind of 'official accounts' that silence too many voices. This is strong work and important work.
• 
  Alex Smith

  Fresh from recent success with the visceral ‘Shakespeare for sociopaths’ and the stark ‘Pensacola Girls’ Kristin Garth now brings us her most personal writing to date. A forensic examination of lasting trauma, Puritan U relates ‘a true crime in sonnets, footnotes and verse’ and seeks to communicate the personal experiences of a survivor of sexual abuse to a society in awe of the Netflix true criminal. It doesn’t fumble its lines.
  Puritan U is full of becomings; becoming a Mormon, becoming a victim, becoming a survivor. The decision to write in the form of sonnets may seem constraining, but in Garth’s hands the structure forms a skeleton, a body upon which to hang whatever dress the poet is told to wear, and those she later chooses to discard. Her craft breathes new life into the form’s traditional quatrains:
  ‘I’m not allowed to lock a bedroom door.
  They own this house. A body has to hide.
  Long nightgowns or it’s “you look like a whore.”
  I take off all my clothes when I’m inside.’
  
  Replete with imagery, Garth’s poetry has the uncanny knack of focusing on just the thing that will burn into your retinas; these sonnets are Polaroid flashes that linger. The thrill-ride of Drive is an exploration of how trauma forms a callous with a perfect gut shot final couplet. God is Wrong evaluates the relationship between fathers as Gods with the spirit of Plath alive in every iamb. Further ‘exhibits’ reveal a tenderness below the scars. V is for villain walks the tightrope of teen sex and regret in heartbreaking sincerity as the receiver of her consent ‘never questions why you didn’t bleed.’
  ‘Exhibit 2’ moves our protagonist to Brigham Young University and further down the rabbit hole. In these sonnets she’s ‘under covers...Blushed cheeks beneath a pink comforter, cord wrapped...foul speech’ whispering sweet, filthy nothings to her only hope under the paternal gaze of the Holy Father and holier than thou roommates intent on juicy gossip for the confessional bishops. Modern indulgences. Here, the telephone cord becomes either an escape route or enough rope to hang herself with as her parents ‘... pay the cost of your free will.’
  We carry on through traumatic frat orientations and ballet salvation to a stolen cinematic revelation and inevitable Laura Palmer comparisons. We begin to see there are still tremors from childhood trauma in the stark, almost nonchalant couplets of ‘Exhibit 3’,
  ‘it’s friends, the candy lure into this van;
  inside, just girl violated by some man.’
  This is the emotional core of the work. It’s no coincidence that Christine Blasey Ford is quoted in the convulsive ‘A sleeping bag can be a body bag’, the kind of poem to make you ashamed of your gender. A feeling only accentuated in other exhibits with lines like ‘He likes to make you pray’ or ‘I cried the very first moment. He liked / wet things that weep.’
  ‘Exhibit 4’ examines the scale of the damage. Although less visceral than ‘Exhibit 3’, the treatment of the bungled report of abuse is even more appalling, ‘You’re growing smaller though he is the shrink.’ We leave in no doubt as to who the victim is, the protagonists of these poems have less of a grasp on reality. This irony leads to the poor decisions of ‘Exhibit 5’, including a flight to Texas and the self-loathing title of ‘succubus’. Occasionally, the tight structures loosen here and free verse breaks out, a perfect representation of the need to fly, but also of the uncertainty that follows the removal of boundaries. Whose fault was it really? Or as Garth puts it. ‘...why did he stop?’
  All poems contain short, biographical notes that give you a hook into the poem, but much more than that, they anchor the experience. They personalise it, and not just to the author. The tremors are much wider. Some verses are expansive, airy and even naive. Others create such claustrophobia you’ll feel you’re in the safe space closet with her. I wished I was. I wished I could have stopped it all. I wished I had been there to listen. But more than that, I put this collection down knowing that the experiences laid bare here are but the tip of the iceberg. Many sons will still grow up into the monsters that haunt Puritan U and many daughters will grow into the silent survivors whose voices are still to be heard.
  
  Alex Smith
  Author of I dreamt I wrote another me and editor at ABCTales
  
• 
  Keana Labra

  Kristin Garth’s highly anticipated Puritan U is an honest reflection of her experience growing up in a strict Mormon household and her transformation following her sexual assault. This confession was a in direct response to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court judge despite harrowing evidence in Christine Blasey Ford’s damning testimony. Garth’s mastery of the sonnet form beautifully supplements her becoming a survivor and personal growth despite of it. She champions herself in solidarity, baring her evidence for the world to see and understand.
  
  Her life is separated into five “exhibits” beginning with her youth in ‘Florida’ and ending with the start of her stripper lifestyle in ‘Hell.’ Garth is known in the writing community for her usage of sonnets, but her superb transitions in narrative should be acknowledged as well. Chronicling a memoir is difficult work, but Garth makes it look easy. These touchstones in her life are shared in such detail; it is as though the reader is transported to that particular time, experiencing these situations with her.
  
  The reader learns a hard lesson from Garth: despite the inflicted trauma occurring twenty years ago, its wound remains with Garth for what may be the rest of her life. But, she is ironborn, forged herself with herself and forever armed with her words. This is her gift to her fellow women: though we are affected, we are not defined by these attacks. Her redemption comes with her success, and it can’t help but resonate with this quote popularized by Edgar Allen Poe’s, The Cask of Amontillado, “nemo me impune laccessit.” No one shall harm me unpunished. And no one again shall harm Kristin Garth with impunity.
• 
  Diana

  Brutal and necessary. A fever dream of a collection, at times hideously familiar.
• 
  Carla Sofia Sofia

  A thoughtful and sharply crafted sequence in mostly sonnets that bravely foregrounds a narrative that otherwise could have been buried. What could have remained dead becomes ghost, what could have been burned alive becomes phoenix. Garth has created a kickass book that requires our urgent listening, a collection that is a masterclass in both courage and poetic craft. Working on a longer book review to follow.