Oloyede.. what an artist you are!
What a master of words!

No review of mine could possibly do this poetry collections justice but the emotions that he use of the poet evoked in me, not knowing the country, not having experiencing the hardships he describes were just overwhelming stunning. Words that stick to you, hurt you and heal you at the same time.

I loved it. Thank you Netgalley for opening my heart to this man's work.

I liked the themes and the topics of these poems, but I just couldn't get past the language. I'm not sure if it's a cultural difference, but I thought many of the word choices were overly flowery and the metaphors were a bit clumsy. Not the poetry collection for me.

I was really excited about this book because the blurb sounded very topical and relevant and it was this for the most part but sometimes I found it quite difficult to read and it could have been better if some of the language was a bit simpler.

Interesting, the quality of poems is slightly uneven, but overall worth reading. The imagery is quite good. As in most collections, some poems are far better than others, but it makes for an interesting book to dip into now and then

Thanks to #Netgalley and The Roaring Lion Newcastle for making this poetry collection available to me for an honest review.

I am afraid that this review might be a bit too honest but I hope whoever is reading this understand that I am not writing this in spite or with that intention in mind.

Let me first address the things I loved about this collection and why I gave it 2 stars. Lagos is Killing Me is an amalgamation of events, places, relationships, heartbreaks in that it explores themes of love, hope, acceptance, culture and national pride. Every single poem exposes that writer innermost thoughts on society and his relationship with it. From his relationship with his father, the END SARS movement, Racism and his experience, Michael was very raw with his expressions. His exploration of these topics made it very easy for me to relate as a Nigerian who have experienced the same or similar emotions. So to that, I would employ that people read this collection.

However, this book was really difficult to read because of the unnecessary and almost annoyingly excessive use of analogies, convoluted word choices and metaphors. It just got me thinking, 'who is he writing for?'. If the average reader cannot comprehend your word choices, how would they be able to fully enjoy your writing and even fall into your poetry? That is not to say that one should not learn new words from reading. But when it is in every line and every page then it becomes really hard for the reader (This is my personal opinion as a reader). I have read so many poetry collections over the years that span different generations and whilst this is one of the most relatable in terms of cultural experience, it was also the most difficult to connect with because I was too busy trying to link several analogies and google words at every turn!

There's way too much going on here, and the amount of archaic and deliberately abstruse vocabulary is distracting. This collection feels like a tribute to the poet's thesaurus.

The writing was very beautiful and the poems covered a variety of topics such as politics, society, history, love, and family. I also enjoyed the complexity of the poems and having to slow down to absorb them and their meaning, I think that is part of the point of poetry. However, there were some poems that were somewhat too complex (having to look up words and then still not fully grasping the context) but I still finished this book with thoroughly enjoying most of the poems.

Taiwo truly has a way with words and these poems touch on the full spectrum of the human experience. What's great about them is that apart from some which reference Lagos and Nigerian culture specifically, people who are based anywhere in the world can relate to these poems.

I enjoyed the sense of lyricism I got from many of these poems, but found at times that the wordplay left some of the pieces over-engineered, which muddied the message for me.

The poems towards the end, particularly those dedicated to current events such as the murder of George Floyd and the Lekki tollgate massacre, really resonated with me and I felt a visceral change in the emotion as Taiwo penned them.

This book is a candid and splendid evocation about every spice of life. The author weaves words like an adept craftsman. He employed all necessary literary devices to embellish his experiences and narrations. He is indeed a brilliant writer and his works to be explored and savored. The line up pf poems are didactic, poignant and thorough. Only folks with literary depth and a spongy heart would vibe to the weight and color of words used by the writers. The visceral readers and fickle poetry warts would just cast unnecessary aspersion on this great work. Poetry is personal and surreal and astral and neural in form. We need to understand the etymology and context and ontology of words to relate with them. This is one of the finest strings of poetry i have come across in a while and it is an enthralling piece. My favorite poems were curly smoke, sepia, cowries, sacrament of bullets, covid too; to mention but a few.

Over time, I’ve come to find that poetry is a very personal thing. In that sense, I try and be as open to the process as best as I can, while reading. But, I also have to be honest with myself in reasoning that there are some collections that will resonate fully with me and others that simply do not. Oloyede Michael Taiwo’s, Lagos is Killing Me fell in the latter of the two categories. At the conclusion of the collection I was left feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed.

Lagos is Killing Me is diverse in the various themes explored including: love, loss, hope, sorrow, oppression, freedom, Western influence on African culture, and Nigerian pride. Each of the poems are an exploration of these themes and utilize the author’s love of written word. Most times, however, the delivery felt forced and fell flat. There were pieces that became muddled with excessive mixed metaphors, analogies and complex word choices.

I’d like to thank NetGalley for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

This collection of poems covers every aspect of human life, joy, despair, love death. I won't pretend that I understood what each poem was trying to say but reading them made me think and these were the ones that I enjoyed most: Laughter, She is not yours and Poet Tree.

I was left with concern for this poetry anthology from the preface, specifically, the phrase 'words lubricate the human spirit'. Which is in the first sentence. My concerns for this anthology continued as the narrator explored unrequited love, the pandemic and racism. These are important topics, which need to be explored with care. This anthology often felt like the narrator simply picked a topic and wrote the first thing that came to mind.

Poetry can be the highest form of literature, exploring intricate facets of humanity through cleverly crafted metaphors. But the key, in my opinion, is in the crafting, care and editing of the piece. Many of these poems feel like first drafts. The overabundance of adjectives, mixed metaphors, and analogies are overwhelming, and I found it very difficult to empathise with the narrator because of it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm going to be adding this one to my did not complete stack. This just wasn't for me and while I really tried to get into it, it would be unfair to the author who put a lot of effort into it. This definitely was a thing with personal taste

I liked the passion in this book. It is clear that the author cares a lot about his art and about the subject matter of the poems, which included current events like COVID-19, and police brutality in the U.S. and Nigeria. I do think I would have liked the book more as an audiobook. Many of the poems had inconsistent rhyme patterns and unconventional structures. I am not a stickler for rules in poetry, but I often found myself settling into a rhythm while reading a poem, only to stumble as the poem continued. This interruption in the flow distracted from the message of the poems. I think this book will speak to many other people, I just had some difficulty with it.

Such a heartfelt collection on love, life's hardships & very important social issues! Oloyede Michael Taiwo puts his thoughts in extraordinary lyrics, ''dressing'' such heartbreaking and inspiring emotions in gorgeous and deeply descriptive words. With themes that both unsettle and soothe the reader, I think the variety of poems has something for every poetry lover! From poems about heartache and love to outcries against every kind of oppression, reading this was a really emotional ride.
The poems I personally found most influential and touching were the ones bravely talking about the hardships of life in Nigeria and the ones embracing African culture. Especially those discussing white privilege and western exploitation and the ones reporting the violation of human rights and the danger that is SARS were not only incredibly powerful but educational, as well! There are also quite a few feminist gems that I highly appreciated and cherished! A very refreshing and moving debut collection!

Poems depicting the life of a man living in Lagos, written about life, love and Black Lives Matter. I’m not always a fan of poetry, but the way Oloyede writes some of these, he captivates the reader. There is high use of intellectual words, which for the majority, give depth to the poems, but for some, it made them a little too complex.
Every person is able to relate to the words written, which makes you stop and think. But by far, my favourite poems were those which focus on Black Lives Matter, and the SARS at Lekki Toll gate, both very recent and paramount in society today!