Review of Nicholas De Marino, “The World Ends With a Whimper,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 59 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
When one starts off their piece with a call-back to such an iconic poem, it sets the reader’s expectations high. While the poem was a strong one (cleverly constructed so it could be read in multiple ways), I’m not sure the title helped rather than hindered it, especially as the title was also the opening line. I wonder what the poem would’ve been like if instead of setting things up to repeat an idea, the title was instead used to introduce something new and unexpected?
SFF Reviews 