The Exclusion Zone (Shastra Deo, UQP)

‘You are searching for something,’ begins The Exclusion Zone. It’s a provocation that forms the manifesto for the enthralling and ingenious second poetry collection from Shastra Deo following her ALS Gold Medal–winning debut The Agonist. Setting the melancholic tone of The Exclusion Zone is the quietly offered choose-your-own adventure poem ‘It Survives’, which provides an exquisitely imagined exploration of the lost—and of the found. It is a disarmingly charming way to challenge the reader to read deeper and further. Comprising 46 poems broken up into three distinct sections—‘The Exclusion Zone’, ‘The Game Room’ and ‘The Lighthouse’—the book unravels with force, atom by devastating atom, each ink-stained omen questioning our ability to remember what has survived in our endless foraging for annihilation. Deo displays a voracious appetite for the survival of language, the poems basking in the glow of their inevitable demise. The reader is left touched and terrified in equal measure. It is a remarkable accomplishment. There are poems of tumultuous energy in The Exclusion Zone, forms never encountered, and despite the collection’s high concept, it is exceedingly accessible, relatable and tender. The final words of the book shimmer with human desire, life itself. It erupts, not with hope, but yearning—a weapon of mass vulnerability. Unsatisfied by merely haunting the reader, these poems hum with cosmic energy. Hot to the touch, Deo’s creations burn prophetic inscriptions onto the soul. For an unforgettable read, turn to page one of The Exclusion Zone.

Daley Rangi is a Māori antidisciplinary artist, generating the unpredictable. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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Category: Reviews