Spectral Reviews

So, I asked a fair number of people if they would tell me what they thought of Spectral, partly because I didn’t, at some level, believe that many people would want to. In the end, I got sixteen reviews, which is honestly ridiculous, and it still spins my head out that people whose work I admire and opinion I value would a) want to do this, b) have such lovely things to say about it. That they are elegant pieces of art in themselves should not be a surprise, however.

The reviewers are: Leanne Moden, Rick Dove, Kathryn O’Driscoll, Laurie Eaves, Rebecca Cooney, Tina Sederholm, Edalia Day, Sam J Grudgings, Rikki Livermore, Robin Lamboll, Elizabeth McGeown, Dan Simpson, Kate Fox, Rosie Garland, Myriam San Marco, and Katie Ailes, and you should be able to jump to their review by clicking on the names above.

Thank you all, so, so much.

“Spectral is a beautiful, fiercely personal multimedia experience. Fay crafts poetry with an expert eye for detail and a emotional literacy that few others are able to match. Zir writing is sensual, lyrical and sublime. A truly glorious collection!” – Leanne Moden

“It is often hard to pick a favourite poem, or favourite line in a well crafted collection, and with Spectral it is impossible. This collection from Fay Roberts is an iridescent and symphonic work that blends the full range of human emotions and experience into an exquisitely crafted whole. At once innovative and grounded in tradition, Spectral is a raging and respectful piece, that challenges and rewards in equal measure. Above all, Spectral is at its heart a very human book, and it arrives at a time when we all need reminding the value inherent in such humanity. Like its rainbow inspiration Spectral is a promise, and a standard, a flag in the ground, and beacon of hope.” – Rick Dove

“A true spectrum of emotions all held in equal tenderness. Roberts shows us where spectrums of light, sexuality, gender, neurodivergence, disability and emotion collide with wisdom as old as nature itself. Spectrum holds space for queer rage, disabled trauma, deep friendship, and everything in between.

“We are guided by a steady hand to the realisation that all emotions and experiences are equally important to acknowledge and that finding your way through them all is just as much about self-compassion as it is finding your community.

“Carefully crafted with an effortless fluency in form, a soothing musicality, and a deft originality in nature-wrought imagery, Spectrum feels like a celebration of the natural world juxtaposed against the tensions of living in it. Part legend, myth, fable, this collection is one of a yearning to understand and soothe the self. It explores all the piques of pleasure and pain - and turns its face to the sky with the ancient understanding that all these things too, shall pass.” – Kathryn O’Driscoll

“Few have given more to the poetry community than Fay Roberts – and their first full-length collection is the best gift they’ve given us yet. These are poems the texture of dreams and the colour of emotions. They sing with the voice of the sea and the solace of mountains. Washed softly through with warmth and wit, this collection captures Roberts’s fifteen years of experience on stage and feels great to finally have on page.” – Laurie Eaves

“Fay Roberts’s first full-length collection contains multitudes - it conjures vast windswept landscapes then invites you to listen to the strain of a single aching muscle. It is raw and yet reflective, intimate yet grand in scope, tender yet fiercely insistent.

It invites you into a beautifully curated retrospective of an artist who has spent years honing their craft, and then graciously offers you space to plot your own course.

This collection is steeped in the wit, warmth and precise lyricism that have come to define Roberts’s impressive body of work.” – Rebecca Cooney

“Fay Roberts’s Spectral is a breathless and breath-taking panoramic dance through the rainbow of the human emotional experience. At once ethereal and deeply humane, Fay’s innovative collection is one to be savoured for years to come.”

“Intimate, playful and courageous, Spectral is an innovative and nuanced exploration of the human emotional palette.” – Tina Sederholm

“Fay’s poems are deliciously visceral.”

“The poems hug my insides and then twist them in surprising and delightful ways.” – Edalia Day

“holy fuck! how the hell does Fay Roberts do this? Zir work is a tender yearning demand for connection, a silken thread of want interlinking the small gods of humanity’s capacity for greatness & wonder. The care & consideration that has gone into the construction of the book is a poem in itself, keys to the poem to ensure nothing unwanted is unlocked is a touch of genius & the QR codes throughout allowing Fay to step off the page or show zir working makes this a wonderfully breathing codex to welcome the poet into your cosy reading mind & act as a guide tour to the inside of your own head.This is such an intricate body of work like absolutely no other. Zir poems command horniness & reverence & loss & rage in equal regard, a soft touch but never a weak one & zir care for the reader is never lacking

“Like a more mythological Regina Spektor Fay works the phatic & unsung into the mystical & delineates the wild of folklore into a familiar friend & all their untold depths. You will walk with wild beasts & be thankful! Taking you by the hand gently and weaving your body down through the spectrum of emotions & magic - this is an enriching journey of intricacy & amazement whilst also being tender & captivating. This is the phenomenal debut of a talented wordsmith that you should take to the checkout right now!” – Sam J Grudgings

“Stepping into Spectral, feels so welcoming and familiar. The careful and caring combination of author’s bio, content warning key, introduction, colour-coded emotion-section explanations and individual poem birth notes (with additional QR codes for the most passionate geeks who want all the easter eggs!) mean at no point does the reader feel thrust into a poem; cold. Not to say Spectral is predictable - more, it’s like catching up with an old friend you haven’t seen for a while, over a period of change and growth; for only they can bring the informed perspective of experience and knowing, the simultaneous investment to teach in light of their own learning, and belief in your capacity for receiving it, plus, of course, the ability to surprise you in the best ways possible.

“Spectral takes an interestingly lesser-trodden path through poetry - grouping pieces by reaction rather than action; or emotion rather than topic; or even better said: emotion becomes the topic. This means the reader is treated to multiple looks at complex subjects throughout the collection, which, in a society where it feels we are being forced into increasingly polarised stances, brings a refreshing humanity and permission for nuance to the experience. Spectral moves us away from conclusion by reduction, which can leave us with limited touchstones to important areas – like “Rain Man” for neurodivergence or “Ru Paul’s Dragrace” for queer representation. So, rather than the usual snapshot stereotypes, Fay allows us to see a full human in those subsets (and more) in all our delightfully stimming, quietly introverted, inconveniently irate and passionately vociferous, coloured emotions!

“Despite being described from the outset as one, even though the reader is encouraged to pick their own path through the book, like all good concept albums: I could not help but read the entire thing cover to cover; such is the trust and intrigue that Roberts engenders with the reader. Besides who really wants to only know one side of a story, a friend or, indeed, themselves! That being said, armed with my hefty list of notes and quotes (and my goodness, this book is quotable!), I have since found myself dipping back into individual sections when my own emotions have shone to the colour of Fay’s synesthesic determinations, making this not just a poetry collection but also a point of personal emotional check-in. As ze puts it, in ‘The Untitled’ –
‘something has to beam the light
from all the colours blended,
and the peace of none at all.’
Spectral does that. – Rikki Livermore

“Roberts’s work radiates passion, sweeping lyrically through the glorious and terrible emotions of embodiment. It is more personal than Roberts’s earlier work; a whole, muddied person is here on display and the scars of living have worded over beautifully. Poems spark organically in and out of strict forms while still feeling like the rawest outbursts. It is a spellbook for summoning, vindicating and exorcising feelings.” – Robin Lamboll

“Spectral starts as a murmur: a careful stating of boundaries, a gentle leading us by the hand to the water’s edge. Roberts as synaesthete weaves narratives from the colours that are zir everyday companions while patiently exploring the liminal spaces of emotions and identities from a life lived in ever-evolving self-discovery. Ghosts lie within these pages and hover out of sight until one by one it is their time to say Yes, here is the truth. But Spectral is not timid. The truth, when it comes, can be peaceful or can be a furnace blast seething with the rage accumulated over decades but we are safe within the firm boundaries created from the outset. Roberts tells us we are not weak for needing a trigger warning; there is much to see here, and in giving us permission to choose what we wish to see, ze gives us the confidence to face all of it.” – Elizabeth McGeown

“Finally, a collection of poems from one of the legends of the spoken word scene! On the page, Fay’s words retain both the musicality and muscularity of zir live performances, with poems moving like a gentle fire guiding you on a journey - through the complexity, beauty, and sheer emotionality of life. Dip your toe in and stay for a while in Fay’s welcoming verse.” – Dan Simpson

“Spectral is a giant brain-swirl of a book, full of moods and tangents but beautifully measured and well-structured. Simultaneously stimulating and calming for my neurodivergent brain! Fay’s brave, quietly-defiant, joyous poems are some of the best of what the spoken word world has to offer and prise apart the binaries to release a world of gloriously sensuous, immersive wordery.” – Kate Fox

“In Spectral, Fay Roberts shows their true colours, and they’re wonderful. Weaving word and mood, we are offered a rainbow. From Passion through Joy to Melancholy & beyond, Fay shares poems that capture the fire of their live readings, in full colour and scented with spices. And like the most interesting journeys, the path loops and meanders, with QR codes leading to intriguing tangents…

“Are you the kind of reader who starts at the end and works backwards? Perfect. Prefer to dip in and out? Also perfect. This is a collection where we can go our own way, tantalised by poems shimmering with magic, woven through with the gut-punch of lived emotion.

“Each piece is a waystation on a voyage of discovery to a ‘sky that beckons / ever larger’ and finding ‘brightness, even in the darkest times’” – Rosie Garland

“Reading Spectral felt like putting a kaleidoscope to my eyes, marvelling at all the colours of the human experience with oohs and aahs of deep satisfaction. But these polished glass shards have an edge like no other and Fay Roberts’ craft in distilling emotional minutiae to its purest form brought new poetry sounds to my lips. This is a rich collection that challenges, satisfies and inspires with sheer elegance and a mastery over language akin to an entomologist focus over a new species of butterflies.” – Myriam San Marco

“Fay Roberts is a lauded veteran of the UK’s poetry scene, and this fantastic new collection showcases the linguistic dexterity, tonal range, and formal innovation which has earned zir well-deserved acclaim.

“This is eloquent, agile, sensuous poetry, as fierce in the face of injustice as it is generous in its care for the reader. The collection traverses reality and myth, rage and love, bravery and vulnerability, and relishes in the seams where they meet.

“Organised through emotional states and associated colours, Spectral is a heady synaesthetic trip. This exploration is anchored through the body—Roberts deftly questions the violent logic of ‘norms’ through navigating the physical and the felt, the named and the experienced.

“Spectral gives a masterclass in ventriloquising through the page: Roberts’ voice sounds strongly through each poem, in whispers and shouts. This is a collection which will echo in readers’ minds long after its covers are closed.” – Katie Ailes