This is a very average book of poems--little to excite or delight. The poem about the last Castrato reminded me of that film Faranelli--a good film, an okay poem. The dog and wolf stuff reminded me of James Dickey's famous poem about the stage between dog and wolf. The language in these poems is neither dazzling nor surprising, but one can sense that the poet is dedicated to the cause of poetry. The imitations function well as tributes, if not as full-developed poems.I do wonder why the reviewer below would waste fifteen minutes writing a review of someone else's review. That to me seems ridiculous. The poet doesn't need anyone to defend her work. Any new book of poetry is a good thing. This book is fairly inoffensive if not unremarkable. I would think the poet would be delighted that people are reading her book and have any response to it at all. I wonder what will come next for this poet after she have moved beyond the "Cusp."