Reviewed by Lit Amri for Readers' Favorite

Divided into three parts, Thom Kudla’s Disorder lets readers explore the complexity of mental illness. The thoughts resonate through narrative and unconventional typography art. In Part I: Clinical, The Photosynthesis of My Family Tree and I Am the Moon’s Son are not easy to read, literally. On the other hand, I realize that all the typographies in this collection are visually symbolic. Kudla ponders on role models, the saints and the sinners. Eclectic, well-known names such as Tolstoy, Hemingway, and even Cobain become subjects to his musing in terms of emotion and vulnerability. Then there’s the Eve Within, a blunt confession on gender dysphoria. 

In Part II: Personal, The Presence of Mind charted life as he aged through the years until the present, briefly recounting his paramount view of each year, what he did, and what he went through. Earthly Prison is the one that I think most people can relate to, as life itself can feel like an unbearable cage at times. The last part is Social, where Finding Love is another universal poem that all believers, dreamers, thinkers, and lovers can connect with.

On the whole, Disorder has a nonchalant approach regarding clean technicality in terms of free verse or stanzas which strangely propel some of the poems forward, while others feels a bit abstract, glib or hazy. There’s an intangible fixation on a number of the poems that I personally couldn’t figure out. That said, the collection is undeniably passionate, intriguing, and a unique masterstroke of Kudla－his ingenuity of expression.