The season of lilacs is monstrous is a study in contradictions: candied almonds that break teeth, lilacs that can't be milked, getting the things you want then breaking them like glass. Francesca Kritikos writes hunger and gluttony, violence and power, sex and shame with equal parts care and severity.

"Francesca Kritikos’ The season of lilacs is monstrous is like a hymnal written by a disaffected god; one who moves through our world in the disguise of a supplicant—particularly around unnamed men. The puppet master in the role of the 'pretty puppet.' As such, Kritikos shifts between the register of the earthbound (You’re lucky / I’m not used to being free) and the omniscient (I will tell as much of the truth / as you can handle), as deftly and quickly as fruit goes from unripe to decay. Each poem enacts a search for that brief moment of ripeness. Of perfection that is not of the flesh. The search is often brutal, as Kritikos unflinchingly asks us to examine our own appetites—not just for the food we consume, but for blood, for money, for drugs, anything that helps us forget that in the end it’s all waste. It’s also exquisite. Something that once you’ve tasted you’ll never forget."
—Meghann Boltz, author of True Romance