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| Mostly glare free, but slightly pixelated. It is a nice cover though. —Taken with an iPhone 8 |
Love. It is an overwhelming concept for some and a highly sought after notion for others that gets constantly debated and explored. Universally, it could be a little bit of both—at least I think so anyway—but is there a strict definition of what that sort of affection or passion could be? There is a book out there, which helps answer this particular question…
Rose: Future Heart is another poetry novel from Jaz Jazlyn, which follows a Rose personified as a woman as she deals with her own internal conflict about how she views and experiences love—both as interpersonal intimacy and as a source of self-motivation. This personal clash between seeing herself as an independent person who rejects romance and as someone who desires affection plays out throughout the poems and—unlike in vVilrRuUsS: I Never Forget—these poems have a clear link between one another. This is another great stylistic choice by Jazalyn who wants the reader to know about how the Rose deals with her initial resentment about love and how she transforms that into a form of self-empowerment.
To call this a book of mere poetry cliches does this novel a disservice as some of the poems and verse allude to a deeper trauma. Once the Rose realizes where her psychological pain stems from, her voice becomes more grounded and confident with the verses becoming more orderly by the novel’s end. She is fearless in noting similar cases in the poem “The Criminal Country” with this revelation and it fits right into the narrative. For me, this realization that made Rose: Future Heart a poetry novel worth reading for the depth of both the poetry and storyline.
There are many notable poems in Rose: Future Heart, but admittedly I enjoyed “Entertainment Made Me Love Like That” where the Rose examines how her desire for romance stems from music, television, and film. It is not a long poem—and it could be considered cliched for its critique of showbiz—but I feel like it can be considered a universal feeling, considering how many stories carry some sort of romantic subplot. Later on, the poem “Love is not Entertainment” acts as the Rose’s realization that love is not just about intimacy, prompting her to think about what her own definition of love is.
There is another set of connecting poems, “Silent SOS” and “Me No — Know Me”, that I enjoyed partly for that fact alone. The distance between the poems allows for the link to act like a left-hook since, in “Silent SOS”, the Rose shouts “Me No, Know Me” as a means to keep rejecting romance regardless of how it would aid her. This saying in the namesake poem gets directed at a person who is highly unkind to the Rose and helps in shaping the revelation which comes later. Both these poems reinforce the narrative’s focus on the Rose and allowed me to appreciate how she deals with her internal struggles to come out empowered by defining what love is for herself.
While it is not a conventional love story, Rose: Future Heart is a poetry novel about how important it is to love oneself while not letting others define what the word means to you. Jaz Jazlyn does an almost impeccable job at illustrating the Rose’s personal battles with the concept, from resistance to acceptance on her terms. Even if you are not the usual audience for anything romance related, this book could help motivate you to steal your heart back from cynicism alongside your own traumas.
In Sum: A Romance, in which the self becomes the love interest, and deconstructs the idea into something greater—4.0 out of 5
Rose: Future Heart is available through book retailers including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
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