Roulette of Rhymes by JD Estrada

Here’s my disclaimer—I have no disclaimers this time. See? I review books I buy, too *insert silly sarcasm tone*. On with the review.

Summary

Roulette of Rhymes by JD Estrada is a collection of poems around the idea that life is a roulette, thus random. Our feelings and reactions to life are, therefore, also unpredictable.

Beauty in the Mundane

One thing I loved about this collection is that Estrada does a marvelous job of capturing beautiful details in mundane things. For example, in “Drive On”, he focuses on that tired sense of determination we all feel after we’ve been on a long road trip. It’s getting late, and we just want to get wherever we are going. Another poem that stood out to me for this is “Sushi Shecrets”. This short little poem packs a ton of thought provocation into a poem about a soy sauce packet on a broken sushi plate. Who knew something so simple could have such bigger implications? Estrada highlights these little moments throughout the collection in a simple and elegant way.

The Mega-Poem

Another piece I loved about Roulette of Rhymes is Estrada’s 800-line poem “the Madness of Jonathan J. George”. He does a great job of structuring the poem so the reader can take it in a piece at a time rather than being bulldozed by it. I also appreciated the way Estrada changed his form to fit the particular madness Jonathan J. George experienced as the poem progressed. These shifts in poetic technique helped pull me along the journey of Jonathan J. George’s madness.

Formatting

The clean formatting and overall look of the book adds to the beauty of the words. It made the book a pleasure to read. The only criticism I had here is that I would have liked to see page numbers next to the poems in the table of contents. Seriously, that’s it. What a minor issue to pick on.

Summary

If you enjoy poetry at all, and even if you’re just on the fence about it, check out Roulette of Rhymes. It was money well spent for me and I’m sure it will be for you. Plus, Estrada is an indie author and I love supporting fellow indie authors.