NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

A straight mix of poetry, prose, reviews and illustrations in a neat glossy-covered format. They need to sharpen up a bit on the presentation front — AT THE POLTERGEIST FACTORY by Gary Lechliter is completely ruined by the photograph over which it is printed, making it totally unreadable. The review of MONSTER FASHION by Jarret Keene seems to have space at the bottom right for an illustration, but no such illustration exists.

I found the poetry very hard to get into. There seemed to be a complete lack of warmth, humour, even of memorable lines. The general aura was one of depression, with no hint that life might actually be fun, or that experience could in any way be fulfilling. Here's TRIP TO SPAIN by Jackie Bartley:

	When I visited Santiago de Compostela,
	I lit a candle for classmates we both knew
	who were killed in a war that raged like

	fire in a mine, consuming itself and all
	that lay in its path. Now I learn from someone else
	that she's taken the pills all at once

	You tell him you'll change,
	you won't make the same mistakes,
	you'll learn how to please him.

	He doesn't respond — just continues to drive,
	staring ahead, hardly blinking.

	Is where Addie's mother, married
	to a box factory worker, borrowed
	her husband's shotgun, dressed in her
	bedclothes, and leaned across the mattress,
	pulling the trigger with her big toe.