Rebellion Box by Hollay Ghadery
A Review by Selena Mercuri
Hollay Ghadery’s Rebellion Box is a taut and unsparing collection that resists easy categorization. At its core, the book is an interrogation of selfhood—fractured, inherited, and constantly negotiated. Ghadery moves between sharp lyricism and wry detachment, threading her verses with reflections on identity, regrets, and the limits of connection. The collection is formally controlled but thematically restless, shaped by a tension between rebellion and resignation.
“Ghadery’s work thrives in contradiction. She writes about the impulse toward self-destruction with unsentimental clarity, yet she remains attuned to the absurdity within suffering.”
Ghadery’s work thrives in contradiction. She writes about the impulse toward self-destruction with unsentimental clarity, yet she remains attuned to the absurdity within suffering. In “Rumination,” she observes, “I could hang myself / from the balcony / of every thought // but I try to regard / them with the tender / disdain of cats.” The sharp juxtaposition here—between despair and feline detachment—exemplifies the tonal complexity that runs throughout Rebellion Box. Rather than indulging in existential despair, Ghadery undercuts it with dry humour and distance, making clear that survival, for her, is as much about perspective as it is about endurance.
The collection is particularly attuned to the ways identity is shaped by regret and reinterpretation. In “Zendegee Khālee Neest” (“Life is Not Empty”), she writes, “Say it won’t get me / anywhere, but regret is a / baby tooth rooting / upward. It gives me / something / to work against, / the violence // of interpretation.” Here, regret is not a static burden but something organic, intrusive, and formative. The image of a baby tooth—a temporary, awkward relic of growth—captures regret’s dual function as both obstacle and necessity. It is something to push against, to define oneself in opposition to. Just as memory is shaped by perspective, so too is identity formed in response to loss and misreading.
One of the most striking elements of Rebellion Box is its rejection of shared sentimentality. In “Optical Phenomena,” she challenges the comforting illusion that all human experience is somehow aligned, writing, “I feel it coming strong: / the dull self-absorption / of ocean liners, and // I wish I could pretend too, / but different stars / are visible / from different latitudes // and the lovers of the world / are wrong: we don’t all share / the same sky; we are separated / by more than we think.” The imagery here is precise—ocean liners, vast and oblivious, a stand-in for those who move through the world assuming their perspective is universal. Ghadery reminds us that even something as seemingly constant as the sky is in fact relative, contingent on where one stands. The lovers of the world may wish to believe in a common gaze, but Ghadery insists otherwise: difference is real, distance is irreducible.
What makes Rebellion Box so compelling is its restraint. Ghadery does not overwrite or overreach; she allows the space between her words to do much of the work. Her language is spare but cutting, each poem shaped with deliberate precision. Her poetry is charged with an intelligence—both intellectual and emotional—that resists easy conclusions. Identity, regret, belonging, and perception are all unstable categories, shifting with each turn of phrase.
This is not a collection that soothes; it is a collection that unsettles. Ghadery’s poetry does not offer answers so much as it exposes the inadequacy of the questions we have been asking. With Rebellion Box, she demonstrates a keen awareness of language’s weight and limits, carefully unravelling the tensions that shape identity and perception. Her work is a reminder that rebellion is not always loud—it is often quiet, watchful, waiting for the moment to strike.
About the Author
Hollay Ghadery is a multi-genre writer living in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have been published in various literary journals and magazines. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions’ MiroLand imprint in Spring 2021. Rebellion Box is her debut collection of poetry.
Book Details
Publisher : Radiant Press (April 14 2023)
Language : English
Paperback : 75 pages
ISBN-10 : 1989274919
ISBN-13 : 978-1989274910